Request for a compiler feature

[Dave Steffen]

Howdy,

	I have a request for the Compiler Gods (he says, bowing low):
I'd like the compiler to generate error messages based on the typedefs
used in the code, not the actual underlying types.

	I pointed out last week that normal use of the STL plus a
programming mistake can lead to horrendous error messages, because the
types involved are templates of templates of templates. When the
problem code is inside a function that takes two or three of these
things as arguments, the error message can be 7 or 8 lines long.

        Of course, this is normal behavior in C++; the standard library
is built on templates. But it's still annoying.

       I agree that we've all got higher priorities - I'm waiting for
namespaces and template member functions, myself - it seems to me that
this would be a useful behavior to build into EGCS at some point.

       I don't know squat about how compilers work (I'm just a physics
student trying to debug my code); is it feasable to do this?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Steffen                      Wave after wave will flow with the tide
Dept. of Physics                    And bury the world as it does
Colorado State University         Tide after tide will flow and recede
steffend@lamar.colostate.edu        Leaving life to go on as it was...
							- Peart / RUSH
"The reason that our people suffer in this way.... 
is that our ancestors failed to rule wisely".   -General Choi, Hong Hi