Who modified my local variable?

[Hans Fugal]

On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 at 09:13 -0600, Bryan Sant wrote:
> On 6/12/06, Michael L Torrie <torriem at chem.byu.edu> wrote:
> >Methinks Java's implicit pass by reference, and
> >apparent lack of statically allocated objects, has poisoned a lot of
> >programmers thinking.
> 
> What?  No mention of C# or a zillion other 4GL that do the same thing
> :-)?  When moving back and forth between Java and C++ this is an
> oddity.  Or if you learned to program in Java, but are writing
> something in C++, you'll expect things to work differently (wrongly
> from a C++ programmers perspective).  I agree that this can get
> naughty.
> 
> But just to clear things up.  Java doesn't pass by reference
> implicitly.  It ALWAYS passes by value.  So when you pass any
> primitive value, it works just like you would expect in C/C++ -- it
> makes a copy of the var passed into a function (be it a byte, char,
> short, int, double, etc.).  However, when you pass an object REFERENCE
> into a function, it happily copies the reference (4-byte pointer on a
> 32-bit arch) and does not make a wasteful memory copy of object data +
> vtable pointers.  And since the Java heap + garbage collector works
> essentially like a stack, you always get the benefit of a stack even
> when allocating on the "heap".  It's not quite that simple, there's a
> lot of multi-generational GC  magic, but it's typically that
> efficient.  Anyway, when dealing with all but the most trivial
> objects/structs in C/C++ you typically pass those objects around by
> reference or pointer anyway.  So the approach in Java and C++ really
> isn't that different after all.
> 
> BTW if you really want a copy of an object, you can use a copy
> constructor, or implement the clone() method.

Java's way of doing it was initially a stumbling block for me and others
coming from C, but I do like it more now. It's the same in ruby, which
is where I grew attached to it. You just think of it as passing "the
object" around unless you explicitly duplicate or clone. This is, I
think, the common case, and saves a lot of headache with forgotten * or
& sprinkled throughout your C++ code. I'm doing some intense C++ this
summer, and this is one of the things that has really stuck out like a
sore thumb.


-- 
Hans Fugal ; http://hans.fugal.net
 
There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the 
right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
    -- Johann Sebastian Bach
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