From 3485957819662822853 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f78e5,fb1a92fa405c930c X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public From: clamage@eng.sun.com (Steve Clamage) Subject: Re: nested functions Date: 1999/06/17 Message-ID: <7k9b98$4jo$1@engnews1.eng.sun.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 490730587 Approved: Valentin Bonnard References: <7jd4c5$nup$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <_xh83.25803$wk2.383242@newscene.newscene.com> <082d72743190c69CPIMSSMTPU07@email.msn.com> <7jvh45$5ms$1@engnews1.eng.sun.com> <7k617d$pt8@abyss.West.Sun.COM> X-Original-Date: 16 Jun 1999 23:16:56 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc., Mountain View, CA X-Auth: PGPMoose V1.1 PGP comp.std.c++ iQBVAwUAN2koOawEuYhIxRhxAQGKKgIAkYN2022ZdvurpG3PDoagBjEqXj4M6281 Z0ZuOh/2RJIzM9mt5LVQ8+iXSXrWnRM3X1Ds2u8vb8E8l02r17FRwQ== =izRT Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ stanley@West.Sun.COM (Stanley Friesen [Contractor]) writes: >In article <7jvh45$5ms$1@engnews1.eng.sun.com>, >Steve Clamage wrote: >>"G.B." writes: >> >>>John Potter wrote in message >> >>>You can have a var of that type anywhere. I only meant it is useless outside >>>of the scope of parent function. >> >>Huh? You can do it in Pascal, for example. >> >>But using it outside the scope of the parent function would >>be the only point of having local funcitons in C++, it seems >>to me. >I think you and John are meaning different things by "outside the >scope of the parent function". He took it to mean "the scope of the >parent function has ended due to the function returning". In that case >what he said is *indeed* correct. And you cannot call nested functions >like that in Pascal either - the parent function has to be at least *active*. It doesn't help the discussion to confound the terms "scope" and "lifetime". They are different concepts. "Scope" is a static property of the source code. A scope begins with the declaration of a name and ends with the block in which it is declared. "Lifetime" is a dynamic property of the executing code. Lifetime begins when the flow of control passes through a definition, which might be never. Lifetime ends according to the flow of control and the category of the thing: static object, auto object, function. For a namespace-scope object, or an auto object in a function that calls no other functions, the scope and lifetime coincide, if space and time can be said to coincide. Otherwise, scope and lifefime are different. I know that John would not ordinarily confuse these concepts, although it would appear that some others participating in the thread have done so. I assumed John meant what he said. -- Steve Clamage, stephen.clamage@sun.com --- [ 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://reality.sgi.com/austern_mti/std-c++/faq.html ]