std::array is not necessarily allocated on the stack, it's only allocated on the stack when it's a local variable. So I realize what it is and what it does. Do you realize that you have little control over where its memory goes and there are very different types of memory available to games? Do you know what is memory alignment? Do you realize you cannot grow/shrink it? Do you realize you can still do bounds checks if you need them?
If you need to grow or shrink it use a vector. If you need different types of memory or aligned memory, make an allocator and use that. Many people do, it is a very common use of allocators. Even if you don't want to use the STL you can encapsulate all of these things for reuse and modularity.
I'm not exactly sure why you think these things aren't achievable in C++ (and because they are achievable they are relatively straightforward to wrap in a way that they can be made generic while hiding the complexity so you can be done with it). I've even made variadic templates that fuse memory allocations together like Jai's proposed feature.
I've seen people who know C and seem forever hung up on it. It isn't really rationale these days now that there are C++11 compilers that are so mature. It's almost as if there are people who work in a constantly advancing field but don't want to learn anything new.
Thank you for the advise but what if I want to shrink one array that takes 200 MB of memory by 10MB and give it to another array that takes 50 MB of memory on a system with only 256 MB of memory?
> If you need different types of memory or aligned memory, make an allocator and use that.
std::array does not have allocators.
>I'm not exactly sure why you think these things aren't achievable in C++
I have no idea why you think so. I only used C++, assembly and various shader languages in every game I worked on. I did some C in drivers but I don't think it's a good language for games.
I've lost track of your point all together, are you still trying to say there is utility in raw arrays?
You can't possibly think memory allocation problems that are solved by custom allocators can be dismissed because std::array doesn't take an allocator when that it integral to the entire reason it exists. Are you trying to say that not only do you want aligned static memory but that there is nothing that exists that helps over a raw C array?
Here is a digest of the thread you had been replying to: gregstula said that std::array is better than what games use (imagining games use plain C arrays). I corrected them, saying that games use explicitly mapped memory and pointed at issues with std::array that prevents its usage in games. I never advocated use of raw arrays in this thread though they have utility since they are easily substituted with pointers if/when you decide that you care about the underlying memory and this is why I've never seen std::array in a game code. Note that I have not seen every game in existence, only few dozen AAA titles or so. I know people write indie/mobile/social games with stl, python and what-not but I am not really interested in that kind of game programming.
