Create
a function that takes a
char&
argument and modifies that argument. In
main( ),
print out a
char
variable, call your function for that variable, and print it out again to prove
to yourself it has been changed. How does this affect program readability?
Write
a class with a copy-constructor that announces itself to
cout.
Now create a function that passes an object of your new class in by value and
another one that creates a local object of your new class and returns it by
value. Call these functions to prove to yourself that the copy-constructor is
indeed quietly called when passing and returning objects by value.
Discover
how to get your compiler to generate assembly language, and produce assembly for
PassStruct.cpp.
Trace through and demystify the way your compiler generates code to pass and
return large structures.
(Advanced)
This exercise creates an alternative to using the copy-constructor. Create a
class
X
and
declare (but don’t define) a
private
copy-constructor. Make a public
clone()
function as a
const
member function that returns a copy of the object created using
new
(a forward reference to Chapter XX). Now create a function that takes as an
argument a
const
X&
and clones a local copy that can be modified. The drawback to this approach is
that you are responsible for explicitly destroying the cloned object (using
delete)
when you’re done with it.