From 590441649198281427 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f78e5,a1681fbe736bf77b X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-06-06 22:10:45 PST Path: nntp.gmd.de!Germany.EU.net!EU.net!sun4nl!hacktic!motif.hacktic.nl!not-for-mail From: rvloon@motif.hacktic.nl (Ronald van Loon) Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ Subject: Re: Why do default arguments have to be at the end? Date: 6 Jun 1994 22:49:10 +0200 Organization: Home of Motif++ Lines: 36 Message-ID: <2t0246$6e@motif.hacktic.nl> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.hacktic.nl haydens@wayback.atc.ll.mit.edu (Hayden Schultz x3685 ) writes: |">>>>> "Bob" == Bob Affrunti writes: |"Bob> Why couldn't you have something like: |"Bob> x.afunction( ,2,3,4 ); x.afrunction( ,2,,4 ); |"Well, for one thing there is an operator,(). So what would the above |"syntax mean? Trouble for both the programmer and the compiler |"writer. I think that anyone who writes code like afunction(a,(b,c),c) |"should be taken out and shot, but that's valid C++ (and C) code, which |"would be broken or very difficult to interpret. Plus, it would be one |"more break with C syntax for no real gain in functionality. On the other hand, there is the `default' keyword - why not write function-calls like `f(default,default,24)' ? That way, the programmer makes his intention clear ("I only want to specify a different third argument to this function") without having to resort to finding out what the current defaults actually are. It doesn't introduce ambiguity, because a single colon `:' is not a valid thing to pass to a function, so one can distinguish between `default:' and `default' without adding additional complexity to the language. Of course, this is all very hypothetical if the committee isn't willing to consider the possibility of defaults in other places, but it would be nice to be able to specify a more natural order of arguments, instead of having to rearrange them everytime because of `handy defaults'. Just a thought. -- Ronald van Loon \ S-Mail: St. Janskerkhof 18 / Even when you're - Motif++ Maintainer \ 3811 HW Amersfoort / on the right track - Columnist C++ Report \ The Netherlands / you'll get run over (rvloon@motif.hacktic.nl) \ Phone: +31 33 758 293 / if you just sit there