Function objects, function templates, and passage by behavior in C++

ABSTRACT

Passing functions and function objects to general purpose routines is a powerful abstraction mechanism that should be taught in freshman computer science. In C++, a "function" can be defined directly by the user or by a library or can be defined indirectly via operator() as a member function of a class. It is not obvious how to treat these "functions" in a uniform manner. We will show how function templates in C++ provide an elegant and teachable mechanism for passing entities with functional behavior as arguments to other functions.

REFERENCES

• 1: John J. Barton , Lee R. Nackman, Scientific and Engineering C++: An Introduction with Advanced Techniques and Examples, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1994
• 2: Margaret A. Ellis , Bjarne Stroustrup, The annotated C++ reference manual, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1990
• 3: Scott Meyers, Effective C++: 50 specific ways to improve your programs and designs, Addison Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Redwood City, CA, 1992
• 4: Scott Meyers, Effective C++ (2nd ed.): 50 specific ways to improve your programs and designs, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1998
• 5: David R. Musser , Atul Saini, The STL Tutorial and Reference Guide: C++ Programming with the Standard Template Library, Addison Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Redwood City, CA, 1995
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• 7: Bjarne Stroustrup, The C++ programming language (2nd ed.), Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1991
• 8: Bjarne Stroustrup, The design and evolution of C++, ACM Press/Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New York, NY, 1995

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: C++

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Curriculum

General Terms:
Languages