C++ for Scientists - Technische Universität Dresden

88 CHAPTER 3. CLASSES
There are two lessons we can learn from this, firstly:
Advise
Don’t push C ++ too far! Avoid fragile features and minimize implicit conversions.
C ++ enables many techniques but that doesn’t mean one have to use them all. Especially the
comma operator bears so much danger that its utilization must be limited to very rare cases
or better avoided entirely. It is important to have an appropriate notation and time spent on
syntactic sugar is really worthwhile for the sake of better usability of new classes. But some
tricks provide a little improvement in the syntax and create large problems in the interplay with
other techniques.
Secondly:
Advise
If you can’t find a perfect solution, pick what serves you best and accept it.
We dare the hypothesis that there is no single C ++ program that everybody is happy with. The
attempt to come up with the world’s first perfect C ++ program will end in failure and bitterness.
Of course that does not mean always willingly accepting the first working implementation one
comes up with. Software always can be improved and should be. As mentions in § 2.11,
experiences have shown that is most efficient to refactor software as early as possible than
retroactively fixing issues when important applications crash, users are angry and the program
author(s) forgot the details or are already gone. On the other hand, by the time one reaches
a really good implementation one has certainly spent already much more time than initially
planned.
3.8 Other Operators