From 8508968508022394699 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f78e5,ac06fef48c3c04df X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,ac06fef48c3c04df X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1995-01-25 08:40:44 PST Path: pad-thai.cam.ov.com!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!panix!news.mathworks.com!udel!gatech!swrinde!news.uh.edu!uuneo.neosoft.com!sam-slip-i0.NeoSoft.COM!tseaver From: tseaver@sam.neosoft.com (Tres Seaver) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.std.c++ Subject: Re: friends and local classes Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 09:49:48 Organization: MACRO Enterprises, Inc. Lines: 33 Message-ID: References: <3frgln$deh@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> <3froli$gss@news.panix.com> <3fskgs$qsg@engnews2.Eng.Sun.COM> <3g0kgm$gue@engnews2.Eng.Sun.COM> NNTP-Posting-Host: sam-slip-i0.neosoft.com X-Newsreader: Trumpet for Windows [Version 1.0 Rev A] Xref: pad-thai.cam.ov.com comp.lang.c++:70884 comp.std.c++:9243 In article <3g0kgm$gue@engnews2.Eng.Sun.COM> clamage@Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Clamage) writes: >With namespaces, C++ has so many different kinds of scopes, both >named and anonymous, that local classes and nested functions seem >unnecessary. Nevertheless, nested functions allow some powerful >programming techniques which are otherwise very inconvient. >Either C++ should have nested functions, or member functions of local >classes should be disallowed. The current set of rules makes no sense >(IMHO). >-- >Steve Clamage, stephen.clamage@eng.sun.com Bingo! I have never understood why (except to keep life simple for compiler writers) nested functions weren't allowed -- as you say, some techniques require, in the absence of nested functions, a ridiculous amount of work. IMNSHO, the committee would do well to "orthagonalize" the concept of scope as far as possible; it is too late, for this iteration, but the "principle of least surprise" is or should be of fairly high priority. I don't think that complicating things for implementers is a sufficient QED for disallowing the concept; any compiler writer who wants to keep life simple had better pick a language without ties to a language with as bizarre a grammar and syntax as C's! ========================================================================= Tres Seaver, | tseaver@neosoft.com MACRO Enterprises, Inc., | Vox: (713) 827-7273 Houston, Texas, USA. | Fax: (713) 827-7278 =========================================================================