Memory Management

• This is part of chapter 7.
  • We will discuss raw pointers now
  • We will discuss pointers and arrays later.
  • We will discuss "smart" pointers much later on.
• You should read
  • 211 to 215
  • 227 to 234
  • Probably the other parts too, but that is for later.
• For now ignore
  • The dire warnings about raw pointers.
  • The discussion of smart pointers.
• But do read, and pay attention to the gray boxes.
• As a C/C++ programmer, you are expected to be able to deal with dynamic memory.
  • Read the chapter intro on 211. I love it.
  • "A solid understanding of how dynamic memory really works in C++ is essential to becoming a professional C++ programmer"
• What is dynamic memory? What is static memory?
• Why do we need dynamic memory?
• What is the runtime stack? What is the heap?
• How do we allocate memory from the heap?
• How do we return memory to the heap?
• An abstract data type is a data type where we know the domain and operations but do not know how it will be implemented.
• What is a stack? (think in terms of ADT)
  • Domain :
    • A collection of homogeneous data, 0 or more elements
    • Ordered by time inserted
    • First In Last Out or Last In First Out
    • Only access to the item on top.
  • Operations?
    • Push: add an item to the stack
    • Pop: remove the top item from the stack
    • Top: get a copy of the top item on the stack.
    • Size: get how many values are stored on the stack.
    • IsEmpty: return true if the stack is empty, false otherwise.
  • How would you draw this in a UML diagram?
    • I use umlentino.
• What are the performance expectations for a stack?
• How could you implement a stack?