My take is that linked lists are not too bad. It's homework 2 in my data structures class. You can get a bare-bones linked list up and running with insert/delete pretty quickly. As it gets fully featured, closer to
std::list
, things do get hairier, but that's the case for any data structure. They get a much stronger understanding of heap use, they get to create the iterator pattern, and a couple other things. You're not wrong, it's a tough assignment, but they become better problem solvers and programmers because of it. —
sweenish 30 secs ago