[Development] Use of Standard Library containers in Qt source code

[Christian Kandeler]

On 07/01/2016 08:36 PM, Thiago Macieira wrote:
> For some time now, we've had a flurry of changes to Qt source code that uses
> the Standard Library's containers and algorithms, in the name of performance
> and often code size gains.
>
> I'm not disputing that there is a gain. But I am wondering about the trade-off
> we're making with regards to readability. For example, I was just reviewing
> this code:
>
>     if (d->currentReadChannel >= d->readHeaders.size()
>         || d->readHeaders[d->currentReadChannel].empty()) {
>         Q_ASSERT(d->buffer.isEmpty());
>
> The use of the Standard Library member "empty" is highly confusing at first
> sight because it does not follow the Qt naming guidelines. It's even more
> confusing because the next line has "isEmpty". When I read this code, I had to
> wonder if that "empty" was a verb in the imperative, meaning the author was
> trying to remove all elements from the container.

I must admit I don't see a problem here. We are not talking about some 
random third-party library that people are pulling in gratuitously, but 
about the Standard Library, an integral part of C++ that every developer 
should be at least generally familiar with.
Having said that, I personally follow the "use Qt types by default" 
approach, but should we really regard STL containers as dangerous 
intruders that need to be kept out if at all possible?


Christian