Software Engineering and Computer Games

22.16. Resizable arrays

Suppose you want to have an array that holds, say, cCritter objects. There are really three options: maintain your own C-style array, use an array template from the ANSI C++ STL Standard Template Library, or use the Microsoft CArray template.

To maintain an array yourself means using a declaration like cCritter *_critter or cCritter _critter[]. (Note that C regards these two declarations as equivalent; in C an array is simply a pointer.) If you do this, you would also need an int _critter_count variable to keep track of the current number of points stored. And you’d either have to preallocate _critter to some generously large size (and worry about eventually writing off the end), or you’d have to keep reallocating the ...