assert() is a very useful tool for ensuring that pre- and post-conditions, as well as invariants, are met upon calling or exiting a function. If you have never used assertions before, start using them now – they will help you find bugs in your own code, and quickly highlight when code is not used in the way originally intended.
Still, there are a few bits missing in the standard assert(), which is why we will try to build an improved version of it today.
In the last few installments of the Memory system series, we were mostly concerned with how ordinary memory allocation using new and delete works internally, and how we can build our own tools to provide additional functionality. One thing we haven’t discussed yet are the memory arenas which are responsible for actually allocating memory, while providing additional things like bounds checking, memory tracking, etc.
Today I want to share a few very useful macros with you, which I’ve accumulated over the last years of my programming career. Enjoy!
Continuing from where we left off last time, we’re about to optimize our NewArray and DeleteArray function templates for POD-types this time. Let’s start easy by talking about the implementation itself first, and then putting pieces of the puzzle together one by one. Following is the implementation of the function templates NewArrayPOD and DeleteArrayPOD:
In the last installment of the memory system series, we covered how new, delete, and their variants work. This time, we’re going to build our own little toolset which allows us to create new instances (or arrays of instances) of any type using custom allocator classes in a standards-compliant way. Be prepared for some function templates, type-based dispatching, template magic, and nifty macros.
Before we can really delve into the inner workings of the Molecule Engine’s memory system, we need to cover some base ground first. Today, we’re taking a very thorough look at new, delete, and all their friends. There are some surprising subleties involved, and judging from the interviews I conducted, sometimes even senior level staff messes up questions regarding the inner workings of new and delete.
Molecular Musings 