Chapter 9
Understanding C++ Quirks and Oddities
WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?
- What the different use-cases are for references
- Keyword confusion
- How to use typedefs and type aliases
- What scope resolution is
- Details of new C++11 features that do not fit elsewhere in this book
Many parts of the C++ language have tricky syntax or quirky semantics. As a C++ programmer, you grow accustomed to most of this idiosyncratic behavior; it starts to feel natural. However, some aspects of C++ are a source of perennial confusion. Either books never explain them thoroughly enough, or you forget how they work and continually look them up, or both. This chapter addresses this gap by providing clear explanations for some of C++’s most niggling quirks and oddities.
Many language idiosyncrasies are covered in various chapters throughout this book. This chapter tries not to repeat those topics, by limiting itself to subjects that are not covered in detail elsewhere in the book. There is a bit of redundancy with other chapters, but the material is “sliced” in a different way in order to provide you with a new perspective.
The topics of this chapter include references, const, constexpr, static, extern, typedefs, type aliases, casts, scope resolution, uniform initialization, alternative function syntax, null pointer constant, angle brackets, initializer lists, explicit conversion operators, attributes, user-defined literals, header files, variable-length argument lists, and preprocessor macros. Although this ...
