From -2057210119242180243 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f78e5,ccbfcafab96cf493 X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-11-26 09:19:02 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!sn-xit-02!sn-xit-03!supernews.com!194.159.255.21.MISMATCH!dispose.news.demon.net!news.demon.co.uk!demon!mail2news.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail From: Edward Diener Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ Subject: Re: Proposol to increase robustness of programs Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 17:18:04 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Approved: Fergus Henderson , moderator of comp.std.c++ Message-ID: <3C025715.9050709@earthlink.net> References: <3BFE97B3.91430FB1@wanadoo.fr> <3C006716.4070201@earthlink.net> Reply-To: eldiener@earthlink.net X-Trace: mail2news.demon.co.uk 1006795089 mail2news:7970 mail2news mail2news.demon.co.uk X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net X-Mail2News-Path: news.demon.net!mulga.cs.mu.oz.au X-Authentication-Warning: mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU: fjh set sender to devnull@stump.algebra.com using -f X-Robomod: STUMP, ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; WinNT4.0; en-US; rv:0.9.4) Gecko/20011019 Netscape6/6.2 X-Accept-Language: en-us MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 06:47:13 PST Lines: 42 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.std.c++:8300 Gabriel Dos Reis wrote: > Edward Diener writes: > > [...] > > | Additions to C++ merely to prevent > | programming errors is, to me, not in the spirit of the language. > > Apparently, you do know what is "the spirit of the language". Please, > would you like to share that knowledge with me? Thanks. In the example given, the original poster wanted an addition to the language added because he missed the fact that a member function declared in a base class was virtual. This was his error but he felt that an addition to the language which would have alerted him to this fact would be beneficial. I think better documentation of his class hierarchy is all he needs and not for the language to have to tell him which member functions are originally virtual in an immediate base class or not. My personal view of C++ is that the spirit of the language is that the programmer is in charge and should know how to do things within the language syntax. Adding language syntax to make it easier to use the language effectively is one thing but adding language syntax to prevent a programmer making an error seems to me to be wrong. Many C++ programmers seem to feel that there is no need to document classes and class hierarchies effectively but that the language itself should become self-documenting. I take the opposite view that adequate documentation for classes is needed, outside of source code, and that it is not the responsibility of the language to become more complicated merely so that it becomes self-documenting. --- [ comp.std.c++ is moderated. To submit articles, try just posting with ] [ your news-reader. If that fails, use mailto:std-c++@ncar.ucar.edu ] [ --- Please see the FAQ before posting. --- ] [ FAQ: http://www.research.att.com/~austern/csc/faq.html ]