From 4607310502152533310 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 109fba,9a6b7da9ba54eaea X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: f78e5,9a6b7da9ba54eaea X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1993-06-14 08:07:02 PST Xref: gmd.de comp.lang.c++:24367 comp.std.c++:2801 Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.std.c++ Path: gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!newsserver.jvnc.net!louie!hercules.cis.udel.edu!carroll From: carroll@hercules.cis.udel.edu (Mark C. Carroll) Subject: Re: C++ Language Extensions Message-ID: <1993Jun14.150349.778@udel.edu> Sender: usenet@udel.edu (USENET News Service) Nntp-Posting-Host: hercules.cis.udel.edu Organization: University of Delaware, Newark References: <25697@alice.att.com> Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1993 15:03:49 GMT Lines: 38 In article rfg@netcom.com (Ronald F. Guilmette) writes: >In article <25697@alice.att.com> bs@alice.att.com (Bjarne Stroustrup) writes: >> >>There has been a lot of messages arguing for or against extensions >>in general and for or against particular proposed extensions. >>The extreme positions can be summarized as: >> >> This extension is essential now! >>and >> No extensions! > >I find it a particularly telling comment that (in the context of an ANSI/ISO >standardization effort) a strong committment to the plain and simple >standardization of existing practice is considered to be a view held only >by radical extremists. It *would* be telling, if it were a comment given by nearly any other standardization process. The problem with saying that about C++ is, at the time the standardization process started, there was virtually no existing practice to build on! The design of the language was not, and still is not, finished. The problem isn't that the standards team isn't holding to the normal practice of standardizing current usage; it's that the standards team was organized before the language was. The C++ language, as it existed when the standards team was formed, was simply not adequate for the purposes for which is was intended. It needed things like templates (now, I don't like how they were implemented, but it's certainly true that soemthing like them was needed!), exception handling, etc. For the standards team, at that point in the design of the language to say "Freeze the language here" would have been disastrous - C++ needed some extensions. -- || Mark Craig Carroll: || "Only love || CIS Grad, Univ of Delaware || can make love" || PGP key available by finger || -Peter Gabriel || carroll@udel.edu ||