RFR: 8000617: It should be possible to allocate memory without the VM dying.

[Keith McGuigan]

On Oct 14, 2012, at 7:10 PM, David Holmes wrote:

> On 13/10/2012 1:40 AM, Nils Loodin wrote:
>> So in general we have two competing wishes here:
>> 
>> 1. Use std::nothrow, in operator new() and enum in the allocation methods. (basically webrev 03)
>> Pros: more c++ standard-ish
>> cons: more boiler plate, not descriptive of what actually happens, two different mechanisms.
>> 
>> 
>> 2. Use enums everywhere (basically a bugfree version of 04):
>> pros: more accurate description, cleaner implementation
>> cons: it's an instance of "not invented here"-syndrom, ie, we're making up our own stuff.
> 
> I'm less supportive of using an Enum over a boolean now. A two-valued enum is a boolean. 

I disagree.  A two-valued enum adds code readability to the code, though I'm sure the resulting machine code is the same.  I'd much rather see a self-describing name at the callsite than a naked 'true' or 'false which requires one to go refer to the function declaration (or definition) to figure out what that value means.   We don't do a good job about this in general in codebase -- it'd be nice to start doing it right.

--
- Keith