Re: Squid 3 build error using Visual Studio

On tis, 2007-08-14 at 14:10 +0300, Tsantilas Christos wrote:

> The major problem you may have is that c++ compilers some times return
> error messages which looks completely unrelated with the real problem.

Or quite related but where it's impossible to grok what is related or
how...

http://www.henriknordstrom.net/code/loreley_warning.html

> (I had similar problem today morning trying to understand what the hell
> means the "undefined reference to vtable for .....")

My experience: Missing object file implementing the class, only having
header references. But if I hadn't known already that the vtable is what
the object internal table of virtual methods is called I would not have
understood that error much at all..

> But I think as someones learns the compilers and tools which his is
> using these problems disappeared ....

And then the tools gets upgraded and you have to learn new errors..

The problem with C++ compared to C is complexity. C++ is a fairly
complex language with many levels of abstraction and a lot of "hidden
magics" which needs to be understood apart from the syntax itself. This
makes a very steep learningcurve when trying to understand existing
code.

Tools like doxygen helps a lot to decipher unknown code. Without them
reading and understanding complex C++ code is a nightmare.

But this is also where the powers of C++ lies. The abstraction levels do
allows for clean code to be done easier than in for example C.

The Squid-3 code is currently a bit messy with 4-5 differen generations
of coding style. But gradually things do get cleaned up. And I am also
looking forward to the docs project getting merged which is a
significant step along that path imho.

Regards
Henrik