The difference between an instance variable and a static variable.
cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/146762
cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/146762
int variable => local scope => my int from the perspective of an instance
static int variable => class scope => our int, for all instances of a class
personally I prefer including the file
prog_constants.h
int program_state; // Keeps track of stuff
in all translation units. That way I can easily keep track of what different parts of the program are doing at any time by modifying a single variable.
That's a nice idea. You can always put a pointer there if you need more state.
It just doesn't work on machines with different int and pointer sizes. On the benefit of interoperability, I suggest you make it a (void*). So one function can set it program_state = (void*)'K'; while some other one can set it program_state ={1, 32, 768}; and yet another can do program_state = "I'm in the middle of something here!";.
