Re: I want try...finally

[Matt Austern <austern at apple dot com>]

On Thursday, May 15, 2003, at 08:06  AM, Andrew V. Fionik wrote:

> Hi, guys.
>
> I think that you doing great job by making GCC and G++. However i feel 
> that
> C++
> compiler lacks support for one great language construct 
> "try...finally". I'm
> sure you know about it. It widely used in prooperitary Microsoft and 
> Borland
> C++/Delphi compilers. This construct allows to easy write safe, 
> elegant, and
> well readably code.
>
> I hope you will add this language feature.
>
> P.S. Of course i know that it not exist in standard, but i think in 
> that
> case standard deffinitely outdated.

I would oppose adding the "finally" construct to our C++ compiler 
unless the
standard is updated to include it.

I don't have strong feelings about whether the C++ Standard should be 
updated
to include "finally", but I do feel strongly that this sort of language
extension should be done by the standards committee, not on a patchwork 
basis
by gcc maintainers.

I suggest that you write up a proposal for "finally" (what are the exact
semantics of the feature, what coding styles does it support that are
impossible with the existing language, how it wouild interact with 
existing
language features, how it would affect user code, what would need to 
change in
the standard).  Then you should get that proposal to the standards 
committee.
The easiest way to get a proposal to the standards committee is to post 
it to
the Usenet newsgroup comp.std.c++.  A number of committee members also 
read
this mailing list, so, if you write up a detailed proposal, we can make 
sure
it gets seen by the appropriate people.

			--Matt