From -4393747177912943725 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f78e5,9a6b7da9ba54eaea X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1993-07-09 04:19:44 PST Path: gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!udel!princeton!allegra!alice!ark From: ark@alice.att.com (Andrew Koenig) Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ Subject: Re: C++ Language Extensions Message-ID: <25979@alice.att.com> Date: 9 Jul 93 10:07:49 GMT Article-I.D.: alice.25979 References: <25937@alice.att.com> Reply-To: ark@alice.UUCP () Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ Lines: 30 In article knuttila@vnet.ibm.com writes: > PT sufferes a bit from other definitional problems in the language that are > being cleaned up as the language is being cleaned up. It also suffers from > being more closely linked to the compiler environment. It is also, hands down, > the most appreciated extension in the community using our compiler. In the > end, PT will also be complete, definitionally, because of the number of > implementors that will have it in their compilers. This was one reason, of > many, for including it in the Working Paper. Perhaps a more important reason is that the original letter in which Hewlett-Packard officially requested the formation of the committee explicitly said that templates (and exceptions) should be part of the standard. Those two particular features therefore have special status, not through any action on Bjarne's part, but because of what HP did before the committee was even formed. All other new feature proposals have had to stand up to more detailed scrutiny than templates or EH. Incidentally, at the time, both Bjarne and I argued against forming the committee at that time, saying that it was premature and we should have more implementation experience with templates and exceptions first. It might also be worth pointing out that neither of us has ever held a voting position on the committee. The first AT&T representative was Peggy Quinn [as distinct from Peggy Ellis], followed by Jonathan Shopiro [as distinct from Jonathan Shapiro], both from USL. Now that USL is a subsidiary of Novell rather than of AT&T, Jonathan will represent Novell; AT&T's representative will be Drew Lettington from NCR. -- --Andrew Koenig ark@research.att.com