Quote from: Red Emerald on March 19, 2012, 08:08:49 PM

Quote from: bitplane on March 19, 2012, 08:00:22 PM

If you aren't using C++ in a way that is potentially dangerous then C++ isn't the right tool for the job.

Haha. I like this.

If you are using C++ in a way that you are always shooting your feet then you first ought to learn how to shoot.

Quote from: bitplane on March 19, 2012, 08:00:22 PM

Smart pointers prevent dangling pointers...

Sorry if I'm coming across as patronizing it just seems to me that your comments don't show a great understanding of modern C++ as std::auto_ptr (what I can only guess you are referring to with the above quote) is on only one type of smart pointer (and if you look into boost there are various others - http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_49_0/libs/smart_ptr/smart_ptr.htm). The point is not to just prevent "dangling" pointers (which if you choose to use plain pointers anywhere in between you can't stop anyway) but to carefully control lifetime scope and to safely share pointers amongst owners, observers and (if required to) do so with thread safety.

Really guys - this whole "C++ is too dangerous to use" mantra sounds a little like the '90's Java hyperbole that came out from Sun (now try implementing the very useful RAII or as I prefer to call it "scoped object" pattern in that particular language and enjoy all that added mess of try/finally spaghetti you'll need to release your resource at the right time).

You can use C++ in the same way as your more "beginner friendly" languages and it will do the job - only faster. Even a lot of the old parsing ugliness (such as the old auto_ptr > vs auto_ptr> which you can now use) has been addressed.

No one is forcing you to use plain pointers or char arrays (I am guessing your bugbears). Pretty much all areas of real risk are API's (especially OS ones) and underneath all your shiny other languages must be the same API calls (which being C are going to have the same risks - just you are insulated one level from them unless of course your OS is written in a higher level language).

BTW I presume you guys did read that the bitcoin-qt *bug* was actually a missing compiler flag and not due to C++ coding.