Common Code, Coding Conundrums, Creative Cures, Computing Craft
Good comments convey important information to the human reader of the code that the code cannot clearly convey by itself. Comments should add value, making the code easier to understand, and therefore more maintainable. Remember that 80% of the …
Read more
The answer depends on what you’re doing to the data structure. A data structure itself isn’t inherently slower or faster than another data structure. The specific operations you perform on a data structure (i.e., the algorithms associated with a data …
Read more
Code hoisting is an optimization technique that moves code from inside a loop to outside of the loop, if the code is not dependent on being inside the loop (i.e., the code moved is loop-invariant). If your compiler doesn’t have an …
Read more
The idea for the CTRL-ALT-DEL key combination originated in the IBM PC group, during development of the original IBM PC in 1981. David Bradley wanted a key combination that could be used internally by developers to quickly reboot the …
Read more
I was asked a question recently that went something like this: “If a for loop is faster when it’s unrolled, why does my boss always want me to make my code shorter by using for loops, when my way (loop …
Read more
All programming languages are effectively on a spectrum of abstraction. Some are more abstract than others. So, with this in mind, within the set of high-level languages, you’re going to see some that abstract the inner workings of the machine …
Read more
Professional software developers who use C to develop source code that is portable across compilers will often find themselves avoiding certain newer features of the language, not from lack of knowledge or understanding, but because not all compilers implement all …
Read moreIn C++, the only technical difference between a struct and a class is that, by default (i.e., if you don’t specify anything), members of struct are public while members of a class are private. You can achieve encapsulation in a …
Read moreYes, absolutely. Any general-purpose programming language, including all assembly languages, can be used to implement data structures and algorithms. Data structures and algorithms are independent of the implementation language. In fact, some instructors and authors present them using pseudocode or …
Read moreNo, it doesn’t. The free library function places the specified block of memory back onto the heap’s free list (at least conceptually…actual implementation details can vary). But the free function doesn’t have access to the memory containing the pointer, because …
Read more