pure/const functions in C++
- by Albert
Hi,
I'm thinking of using pure/const functions more heavily in my C++ code. (pure/const attribute in GCC)
However, I am curious how strict I should be about it and what could possibly break.
The most obvious case are debug outputs (in whatever form, could be on cout, in some file or in some custom debug class). I probably will have a lot of functions, which don't have any side effects despite this sort of debug output. No matter if the debug output is made or not, this will absolutely have no effect on the rest of my application.
Or another case I'm thinking of is the use of my own SmartPointer class. In debug mode, my SmartPointer class has some global register where it does some extra checks. If I use such an object in a pure/const function, it does have some slight side effects (in the sense that some memory probably will be different) which should not have any real side effects though (in the sense that the behaviour is in any way different).
Similar also for mutexes and other stuff. I can think of many complex cases where it has some side effects (in the sense of that some memory will be different, maybe even some threads are created, some filesystem manipulation is made, etc) but has no computational difference (all those side effects could very well be left out and I would even prefer that).
How does it work out in practice? If I mark such functions as pure/const, could it break anything (considering that the code is all correct)?
