'Helper' functions in C++

Question

While refactoring some old code I have stripped out a number of public methods that should actually of been statics as they a) don\'t operate on any member data or call any othe

Answer 1

Overhead is not an issue, namespaces have some advantages though

• You can reopen a namespace in another header, grouping things more logically while keeping compile dependencies low

• You can use namespace aliasing to your advantage (debug/release, platform specific helpers, ....)

  e.g. I've done stuff like

  namespace LittleEndianHelper {
     void Function();
  }
  namespace BigEndianHelper {
     void Function();
  }
  
  #if powerpc
     namespace Helper = BigEndianHelper;
  #elif intel
     namespace Helper = LittleEndianHelper;
  #endif