Defines and typedefs such as BOOL, CONST, UINT and DWORD are used pretty much everywhere in the codebase.
Most of these defines where introduced a long time ago (BOOL was added before bool was thrown into C++) and now, most of them are meaningless.
Nowadays, every decent compiler should support C++'s fundamental types without any problem.
Of course, DirectX types and some other funky types (HWND, HHOOK and so on) can't be replaced but there's no excuse for more common types I've pointed out earlier.
Pros
Less error-prone (every Microsoft specific type names are upper case)
Makes high-level parts of the engine less dependent on MSVC / Windows API
Improves compile/runtime speed and makes debugging tasks easier (BOOL is a int typedef whereas bool is a true type)
Syntax highlighting / code readability is slightly improved; GitHub syntax highlighter (and probably many others) don't know about BOOL, HANDLE or DWORD but it does its job perfectly well on the standard types.
#
Cons
Nothing. Really, I can't think of any drawbacks.
What to do?
There's nothing hard. We just need to search for these types and replace them by their standard
equivalent.
If you really have to use a non-standard type in a piece of code, it should be better to keep this code 'away (i.e. not in a header nor in the middle of a high-level source file)
To make things easier, here's a table with what should be considered for replacement and their equivalents.
1 - Representation of an integer type for pointer precision
INT_PTR / LONG_PTR are mapped to a 32-bit signed integer on 32-bits systems and to a 64-bit signed integer on 64-bits systems.
DWORD_PTR / UINT_PTR are mapped to a 32-bit unsigned integer on 32-bits systems and to a 64-bit unsigned integer on 64-bits systems.
It's clear that the easiest way to do that would be to use cstdint along with the standard types. Feel free to share anything, any ideas about all this.
Defines and typedefs such as
BOOL,CONST,UINTandDWORDare used pretty much everywhere in the codebase. Most of these defines where introduced a long time ago (BOOLwas added beforeboolwas thrown into C++) and now, most of them are meaningless. Nowadays, every decent compiler should support C++'s fundamental types without any problem. Of course, DirectX types and some other funky types (HWND,HHOOKand so on) can't be replaced but there's no excuse for more common types I've pointed out earlier.Pros
BOOLis ainttypedef whereasboolis a true type)BOOL,HANDLEorDWORDbut it does its job perfectly well on the standard types.#
Cons
What to do?
There's nothing hard. We just need to search for these types and replace them by their standard equivalent. If you really have to use a non-standard type in a piece of code, it should be better to keep this code 'away (i.e. not in a header nor in the middle of a high-level source file) To make things easier, here's a table with what should be considered for replacement and their equivalents.
INT8signed charint8_tPINT8signed char *int8_t *BYTE/UCHAR/UINT8unsigned charuint8_tLPBYTE/PBYTEunsigned char *uint8_t *INT16/SHORTsigned shortint16_tPINT16/PSHORTsigned short *int16_t *USHORT/WORD/UINT16unsigned shortuint16_tLPWORD/PWORDunsigned short *uint16_t *INT/INT32/LONG/LONG32signed intint32_tLPINT/PINT/LPLONG/PLONG/PINT32/PLONG32/PLONGsigned int *int32_t *DWORD/DWORD32/UINT/UINT32/ULONG32/ULONGunsigned intuint32_tLPDWORD/PDWORD/PDWORD32unsigned int *uint32_t *INT64/LONGLONG/LONG64signed long longint64_tPINT64/PLONG64/PLONGLONGsigned long long *int64_t *DWORDLONG/DWORD64/QWORD/UINT64/ULONGLONG/ULONG64unsigned long longuint64_tINT_PTR/LONG_PTRintptr_tDWORD_PTR/UINT_PTRuintptr_tBOOL/BOOLEANboolLPBOOL/PBOOL/PBOOLEANbool *CCHAR/CHARcharLPSTR/PCHARchar *LPCSTR/PCSTRconst char *CONSTconstFLOATfloatPFLOATfloat *VOIDvoidLPCVOIDconst void *WCHARwchar_tLPWSTR/PWSTR/PWCHARwchar_t *LPCWSTR/PCWSTRconst wchar_t *1 - Representation of an integer type for pointer precision
It's clear that the easiest way to do that would be to use cstdint along with the standard types. Feel free to share anything, any ideas about all this.