Re: Coding standards proposal, usage of "this"

John Baldwin
2021-08-16T17:08:56Z

On 8/13/21 7:26 AM, Simon Marchi via Gdb-patches wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Here's something I had in mind for a while. We don't consistently use
> `this` when referring to fields or methods of the current object. I
> never now if I should use it or not, or point it out in review. I
> therefore propose these rules so that we have something to refer to.
>
> - Use `this` when referring to a data member that is not prefixed by
> `m_`. Rationale: without `this`, it's not clear that you are
> referring to a member of the current class, versus a local or global
> variable.
> - Don't use `this` when referring to a data member that is prefixed by
> `m_`. Rationale: the prefix already makes it clear that you are
> referring to a member of the current class, so adding `this` would
> just add noise.

These seem fine to me.

> - Use `this` when referring to a method of the current class.
> Rationale: without `this, it's not clear that you are referring to a
> method of the current class, versus a free function.

This one feels a bit odd to me, though it may just be something I'm not
used to. It is something I haven't seen used before in C++ at least.

--
John Baldwin