Pointers are a part of C++ programming that can cause grief though not as much as in C, where to do anything non trivial you have to use pointers. Pointers aren’t that bad, but if you’re new to them they will cause you troubles. It is all to easy to write bad code with pointers.
Simple function call versus __fastcall
The __fastcall calling convention specifies that arguments to functions are to be passed in registers, when possible. The following list shows the implementation of this calling convention.
Callee clean-up
When the callee cleans the arguments from the stack it needs to be known at compile time how many bytes the stack needs to be adjusted. Therefore, these calling conventions are not compatible with variable argument lists, eg. printf(). They may be, however, slightly more efficient as the code needed to unwind the stack does not need to be generated by the calling code.
Caller clean-up
In these conventions the caller cleans the arguments from the stack, which allows for variable argument lists, eg. printf().
Patterns Definition
Patterns are a recent software engineering problem-solving discipline that emerged from the object-oriented community. Patterns have roots in many disciplines, including literate programming, and most notably in Alexander’s work on urban planning and building architecture. (Alexander, 1977). The goal of the pattern community is to build a body of literature to support design and development in general. There is less focus on technology than on a culture to document and support sound design. Software patterns first became popular with the object-oriented Design Patterns book (Gamma et. al., 1995). But patterns have been used for domains as diverse as development organization and process, exposition and teaching, and software architecture. At this writing, the software community is using patterns largely for software architecture and design.