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Re: c++ "with" keyword
- From: Lynn Winebarger <owinebar at free-expression dot org>
- To: dewar at gnat dot com (Robert Dewar), dewar at gnat dot com, gmariani at chaincast dot com
- Cc: gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2003 18:24:03 -0500
- Subject: Re: c++ "with" keyword
- References: <20030104223552.724F0F28C4@nile.gnat.com>
On Saturday 04 January 2003 17:35, Robert Dewar wrote:
> > Any language construct that fails in this regard (like with) is very bad
> > - period.
>
> But look carefully at what you are saying. We are talking about a structure
> or class whose members are visible to the client of the library. The change
> we are talking about is adding a new member to the structure. You cannot
> possibly think that such a change can be done in a guaranteed 100%
> upwards compatible manner. That's absurd.
>
> (for example, at the very least the size of an instance will change).
>
> Furthermore, the situations under which adding this member will cause
> specifically a difficulty with WITH are very marginal. It is indeed
> far more likely that the addition of a member will cause other compatibility
> differences.
Why not just make it possible to specify exactly what identifiers you want to
import from the class of the variable (ala Perl's use mechanism)?
Lynn