Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied Review

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Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied ReviewRead this book and you may feel you've fallen down the hole into some sort of C++ Alice-in-Wonderland:
"Isn't it nifty just how much you can do with functions... that not only don't do anything but don't even really exist at all?" p.36
The title is a bit presumptuous; a more accurate title would be "Template Metaprogramming Stunts", since this book is primarily about tricks you can play with C++'s template mechanism.
The author does also make a go at proposing a new concept of "policy-based class design" -- by which he means using templates intead of multiple inheritance to create combinatorial mixtures of behavior. This is interesting, but seems hard to apply beyond the cliches he considers (ex: smart pointers), so his argument reads like a well-intended but parochial graduate thesis, with dutiful gestures of respect to his mentors (ex: Scot Myers) and limited range of real-world application.
The real meat of the book is his template techniques, which are ingenious -- if perverse, when seen from the standpoint of someone else trying to read and extend your code, or diagnose its arcane compiler errors. If you've ever had to work with other people on software, you may find his glib view of compiler errors disappointing. In many cases he relies on compiler errors to signal something more complex and semantic than the mere error would suggest. (If you're programmed much C++ you've surely experienced 10-line long STL template errors with a very simple underlying cause that is hard to discern from the error message. Learning to suss out what these mean is much of the sweat-work of learning C++.) I think this is simply that he's coming from the perspective that the interworkings of the language and the compiler are fascinating, and worth being a primary focus of study. But from the perspective of someone just tried to get your work done in the problem domain at hand, you may resent this attitude.
This book is best approached if you think C++ is really neat. Wheter you love C++ for its roccoco intricacy, or just see it as an evolutionary leaf node language full of botched misfeatures, you will find much here to confirm your opinion. I don't mean to belittle this book. There is real insight here: the idea of computing on types instead of values (to store the results of template-based computations) is a nifty idea. But it's worth keeping an eye on what problems you are really trying to solve, and which ones you may be creating.
Some telling quotes:
"Unfortunately, type_info's useful capabilities are packaged in a way that makes them unnecessarily hard to exploit." p.38
"For a variety of reasons, C++ is a language that leads its users sometimes to say, 'These are the smartest five lines of code I ever wrote.' Maybe it is its semantic richness or the ever-exciting (and surprising?) way its features interact." p.51Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied OverviewIn Modern C++ Design, Andrei Alexandrescu opens new vistas for C++ programmers. Displaying extraordinary creativity and virtuosity, Alexandrescu offers a cutting-edge approach to software design that unites design patterns, generic programming, and C++, enabling programmers to achieve expressive, flexible, and highly reusable code. The book introduces the concept of generic components, reusable design templates that enable an easier and more seamless transition from design to application code, generate code that better expresses the original design intention, and support the reuse of design structures with minimal recoding. The author then shows how to apply this approach to recurring, real-world issues that C++ programmers face in their day-to-day activity. All code is available on the Web, along with Alexandrescu's downloadable Loki C++ library, which provides powerful out-of-the-box functionality for virtually any C++ project. For experienced C++ programmers who have at least some familiarity with the Standard Template Library (STL).

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