comp.lang.c++

* Leon -> Alf P. Steinbach:
>
>
> You think casts are useless?

No, they're in the language for a reason.

That reason is not to make code that one does not understand, compile.


> Then I want you to read some integers from a
> fstream, since fstream's read method returns chars only.

stream >> myInt;

Of course it may be that you're talking about binary i/o, since you
mention read().

In that case, consider whether binary i/o really is what you need. Most
often it's not.


> In some cases
> you are right, and is a cast stupid.

Most often, a cast is stupid. But the reason for that isn't that casts
are inherently bad. The reason is that they're so often abused.


> But maybe it works for this case.

When it "works" technically it's even worse than when it clearly
doesn't, because it can then give a false impression of doing something
right, and so easy too... Leading to much worse problems down the road.


> And if i say something wrong, please explain me my mistake,

Already done.

Simply don't recommend casts as solutions. They're generally not. If
one wants less type checking then the appropriate solution is to use a
language with even less strict type checking, and/or not defining types.


> and don't
> respond so unkind. Or do you want to say you never make mistakes?

I would want to say that, yes. :-) Unfortunately, the road to
perfection is longer than my estimated lifetime. But who wouldn't want
to live that long?


Cheers, & hth.,

- Alf

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