[geeks] VC++ STL vector

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, Joshua D Boyd wrote:

> Frankly, somedays I fear for my employability after I graduate.  If I
> hdn't been being overly ambitious now, I probably would have known
> such a thing when I was being interview for a jobs.

Don't beat yourself up over it.  It's very hard to be aware of what you
don't know, especially when you know enough for things to make sense.

> I still couldn't say how to use the for a usefull benefit.

Well, they sort of hold the same benefit that packages do in Java.  If
you write a class called Vector, and I write a class called Vector, and
yours uses the CS definition of a "vector", and mine uses the physics
definition of a "vector", we'll have a code clash problem if we ever try
to share code.

However, if your code is in the namespace "jdboyd" and mine is in the
name space "jp", we can keep our code bases separate, but still make
them interact.  It means that, so long as we stay within our own
namespaces, we don't have to coordinate nearly as much on the naming of
classes.

> I am so screwed.  McDonalds here I come I guess.

Bah.  If you're going to stick with C++, borrow Stroustrup's book from a
library until you have the disposable income to buy a copy of it for
yourself.  It makes things like this much more clear.  C++ is -not- an
easy language to learn or to master.  It has all the complications of
a low-level language like C (resource management and pointers), all the
idioms of an object-oriented langauage (like Java), and the syntax sucks
rocks (<< and >>, are they I/O or bit-shifts?).

Oh, and unless you feel like replacing the book every few months, get
the hardcover edition.  It'll see a -lot- of wear when you get really
frustrated on something that isn't working quite right, especially when
you don't know if it's your code or the compiler that's misbehaving.

For what it's worth, you're more marketable than I am.  You have a
degree.  I have two years working at a now-defunct consulting firm, one
year working at a university department that no-longer exists, and four
years working at Resume Stain, Inc., and I pray that no one -ever- calls
them to ask what sort of employee I was, because I know they will lie.

So, conslutting or entrepreneurship or a lucky break are what I have to
go on.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke
   > Can you SysAdmins tell me what might go on in a typical day?
   Hours of endless frustration punctuated by moments of sheer terror.
                                 --Saul Tannenbaum (in the Monastery)