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People forget that C++ is just a tool, like a screwdriver or a hammer. A good carpenter knows when it's time to take a metallurgy class and resmelt his hammer,
by logicallee 10y ago
People forget that C++ is just a tool, like a screwdriver or a hammer. A good carpenter knows when it's time to take a metallurgy class and resmelt his hammer, because its composition is not correct for being a hammer.
- cortesoft 10y agoI am pretty sure there has never been a carpenter who resmelted his hammer.
- Sniffnoy 10y agoI think that is the joke...
- theoh 10y agoI'm not sure "resmelting" is even a thing. I am sure that the GP is joking.
- logicallee 10y agoGuys, yes! I was joking. I was directly riffing on the common claim that C++ is "just a tool". This exact phrase, in quotes, has over a hundred thousand hits on Google[1], many of them immediately comparing it to a hammer or a screwdriver. The usual context is that C++ isn't really "unsafe" -- it's just a tool, how you use it is up to you. In the case of the standard library being broken, it is like a tool that is broken. Resmelting might not be a word but the idea of the hammer not being cast correctly and needing to be re-cast is ridiculous. In essence I was making fun of the "there's nothing wrong with C++, just like there's nothing wrong with a hammer" common claim. I was taking it to an extreme. (I thought it was funny.) [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22C%2B%2B+is+just+a+tool%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22C%2B%2B+is+just+a+tool%22
- cortesoft 10y agoI have no idea why I thought you were serious. Poe's law?
- twic 10y agoIt seems it is: http://www.khm.uio.no/english/research/projects/langeid/project/iron-steel/resmelt-iron/ http://www.khm.uio.no/english/research/projects/langeid/proj...
- fasquoika 10y agoIt's not a thing. Smelting means purifying from ore by melting. Unless you turn your hammer back into iron ore, there's no way to "resmelt" it
- louithethrid 10y agoIf you melt metall down again, you get a very brittle, carbon reduced new version, whos properties depend upon the crystallization temperaturcurve?
- johnfn 10y agoIf occasionally when you try to use a hammer to hit a nail, the hammer swings the other way and hits you, that tool has violated some essential assumptions about how tools work, and the "it's just a tool" reasoning might not apply as clearly any more. :)