Any reason for not using "auto" on code base?

[afonsolage]

Hello folks!

I'm just wondering if there is any reason why not use the auto keyword of C++? It's been there since C++11 and our code base can compile C++17 if I'm not mistaken.

In some parts of code, instead of typing:
const VoxelLightSpreader::OutputBlock &out_block = output.blocks[i];

One would just do:
auto &out_block = output.blocks[i];

I'm asking it before using auto because we should have some kind of "code convention" IHMO.

Thanks!

[Zylann]

So far I've been following similar conventions to those of Godot itself, but since I openly use C++11 features in some places, it's a bit more relaxed (mostly because Godot equivalents are inadapted). I'm not a fan of auto, especially when the type cannot be deduced by solely looking at the line (like your example). So I would suggest to not use it for long term readability, unless it's a horrible one like STL iterators or lambdas with multiple templates in it. In other situations I preferred typedef (Like Mgr in updater and streamer).

[afonsolage]

Got it. To be honest, I don't see a problem when using auto, since whenever we are developing C++ we use a IDE, which quick shows us the variable type and, in most cases, you don't really care for the type, since generally you receive it from a function or struct/class members whose the type was already declared someplace else.

When declaring I may agree, since auto i = 0 may sound ambiguous between int and unsigned int.

But anyway, I'll keep not using auto keyword, since most time of my development should be on GDScript, so this shound'nt be a problem.

Thanks!