Need help with a class assignment

Originally Posted by sharris

Just a thought ... out of a few hundred great C++ forums, being a member of at lease two should not be an issue with anyone what-so-ever. Sometime people is not available to help you because they my simply be too busy. So sometime, every now and then, you are FORCE to ask your other ONLY favorite forum in the world. Problem is, one should never join a third or a forth forum just because they talking code that is related to your most important question. So if you are lucky, you at the very lease have two to pray for while waiting for an response. with only two fingers crossed and not ALL four.

btw: This is our subject for next week class

The point is that people will look, and if others have been helpful, which is the case nearly always, then the original poster is just spamming his problem around the internet and hoping to win the lottery. You might try other places if people you've asked earlier don't know, but most of the time, posters are just impatient people.

Originally Posted by Elkvis

which only serves to strengthen my point - thanks laserlight. I don't intend to start an argument or anything, but forcing people to conform to a standard that isn't even official yet is just silly. it's certainly useful to be aware of the new features supported by the upcoming standard, and familiarize yourself with them so you can use them when compilers inevitably support them, but since many don't, and since it isn't required of them, it might be a good idea to slow your roll a little bit on telling people that they have to write code that conforms to the new standard.

Considering two of the most popular compilers in the world supports it, I'd say it's acceptable. Both are available for free.
There is no point in not embracing new features if you can.

I don't think students necessarily fall into the "can" category automatically. Sparing the usual arguments about ancient compilers, fact is schools don't move to the latest right away, even if they teach on a respectable compiler. "Never use NULL" is too strong, since students have to be portable across compilers first.

This student is already using the latest and greatest. That is why I used never.

Learn to read:

I don't think students necessarily fall into the "can" category automatically. Sparing the usual arguments about ancient compilers, fact is schools don't move to the latest right away, even if they teach on a respectable compiler. "Never use NULL" is too strong, since students have to be portable across compilers first.

OP can't just hand in whatever works for him.

Again, if no one forces schools to move on, they never will.
It is already portable across two of the most popular compilers and NULL is evil thing™ that should never have existed in the first place. It is due its time to die.

It is portable to the two most recent versions of the allegedly most popular compilers. You're making a lot of assumptions about what the teacher is going to do with the code handed in: a stable version of g++ will barf, as would any VS version old enough. I don't know when VS added this feature, but I know the school would have to be using that version or a later version.

I think if you want to be pedantic about this to teachers, a comment in the assignment itself, or simply talking to them about the course is just as effective as handing in the hottest C++0x code you can think of, and your grade is the same.