MFC Programmer's SourceBook : Thinking in C++
Bruce Eckel's Thinking in C++, 2nd Ed Contents | Prev | Next

Summary

It’s convenient and optimally efficient to create automatic objects on the stack, but to solve the general programming problem you must be able to create and destroy objects at any time during a program’s execution, particularly to respond to information from outside the program. Although C’s dynamic memory allocation will get storage from the heap, it doesn’t provide the ease of use and guaranteed construction necessary in C++. By bringing dynamic object creation into the core of the language with new and delete, you can create objects on the heap as easily as making them on the stack. In addition, you get a great deal of flexibility. You can change the behavior of new and delete if they don’t suit your needs, particularly if they aren’t efficient enough. Also, you can modify what happens when the heap runs out of storage. (However, exception handling , described in Chapter 16, also comes into play here.)

Contents | Prev | Next


Go to CodeGuru.com
Contact: webmaster@codeguru.com
© Copyright 1997-1999 CodeGuru