GCC’s -Weffc++ has several issues, I never use it. The code that checks for “problems” is pretty simplistic and so the warnings end up being far too blunt and unhelpful. That particular warning is based on Item 11 of the first edition of Effective C++ and Scott changed it (for the better) in later editions. … Read more
If you know that the copy constructor won’t be used, you can express that by making it private and unimplemented, thus: class C { private: C(const C&); // not implemented }; (in C++11 you can use the new = delete syntax). That said, you should only do that if you’re absolutely sure it will never … Read more
I’d say the Rule of Three becomes the Rule of Three, Four and Five: Each class should explicitly define exactly one of the following set of special member functions: None Destructor, copy constructor, copy assignment operator In addition, each class that explicitly defines a destructor may explicitly define a move constructor and/or a move assignment … Read more
Introduction C++ treats variables of user-defined types with value semantics. This means that objects are implicitly copied in various contexts, and we should understand what “copying an object” actually means. Let us consider a simple example: class person { std::string name; int age; public: person(const std::string& name, int age) : name(name), age(age) { } }; … Read more