What is it about writing C/C++ code that turns us in cryptographers? I know that the language is inherently cryptic with its myriad of possible ways to shoot yourself in the foot, but shouldn't that make us want to write cleaner code? In an effort to break the cycle I've picked up a highly recommended book by Scott Meyers called "Effective C++". I love "Effective Java" by Joshua Bloch, and I'm fairly certain that Bloch got the idea for his book directly from Meyers's book. Looking forward to devouring its 55 nuggets of wisdom.
I recently have come into contact with the Adaptive Communication Environment (ACE) toolkit for C++. My first thought was "wow! this is incredible", followed shortly by "why on earth haven't I ever heard of this before?!?!" I felt a little cheated for it never to have been mentioned in any classes I took, particularly considering how long it's been around. I'm on a very steep learning curve with how to use it and will post in more depth when I'm further up that curve. But the initial report is still "wow".
