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    <p>I know I'm going to get a lot of downvotes for this, but in my opinion the usefulness of const-correctness in C++ is vastly exaggerated. The const idea is primitive (it only captures one bit of concept... change/don't change) and comes with an high cost that even includes necessity of code duplication. Also it doesn't scale well (consider const_iterators).</p> <p>What's more important I cannot remember even a single case (not even ONE) in which the const-correctness machinery helped me by spotting a true logical error, that is I was trying to do something that I shouldn't do. Instead every single time the compiler stopped me there was a problem in the const declaration part (i.e. what I was trying to do was logically legit, but a method or a parameter had a problem in the declaration about const-ness). In all cases I can remember where I got a compiler error related to const-correctness the fix was just adding some missing const keywords or removing some that were in excess... without using the const-correctness idea those errors wouldn't have been there at all.</p> <p>I like C++, but of course I don't love to death every bit of it (digression: when I interview someone a question I often ask is "what is the part you don't like about &lt;language&gt; ?" ... if the answer is "none" then simply means that who I'm talking to is still in the fanboy stage and clearly doesn't have a big real experience).</p> <p>There are many parts of C++ that are very good, parts that are IMO horrible (stream formatting, for example) and parts that are not horrible but neither logically beautiful nor practically useful. Const-correctness idea is IMO in this gray area (and this is not a newbie impression... I came to this conclusion after many many lines and years of coding in C++). May be it's me, but apparently const correctness solves a problem that my brain doesn't have ... I've many others problems, but not the one of confusing when I should change an instance state and when I shouldn't.</p> <p>Unfortunately (differently from stream formatting) you cannot just ignore the const-correctness machinery in C++ because it's part of the core language, so even if I don't like it I'm forced to comply with it anyway.</p> <p>You may now say... ok, but what's the answer to the question ? It's simply that I wouldn't get too crazy about that part of the semantic description... it's just a single bit and comes with an high price; if you're unsure and you can get away without declaring constness then don't do it. Constness of references or methods is never an help for the compiler (remember that it can be legally casted away) and it has been added to C++ just as an help for programmers. My experience tells me however that (given the high cost and the low return) it's not a real help at all.</p>
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    1. PODoes it make sense to use const in an interface or not?
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    1. CO-1 for FUD, as well as not answering the question the OP asked.
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      1. USBilly ONeal
    2. CO"..I cannot remember even a single case (not even ONE) in which the const-correctness machinery helped me by spotting a true logical error, that is I was trying to do that I shouldn't do..." There was a memory leak in our system, the cause was that someone wrote the code to call "release()" instead of "get()" on a std::auto_ptr variable (on several places). This happened because the developer did not honored the coding guideline that we should make auto_ptr const whenever possible. If it was declared const we would have got a compilation error.
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    3. COwhen the compiler gives you a tool that can enforce a concept at compile-time instead of run-time, use it.
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