Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!ulysses!andante!alice!ark
From: ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: References considered crippled
Message-ID: <9483@alice.UUCP>
Date: 14 Jun 89 13:46:49 GMT
References: <NEATH.89Jun12170832@solar-1.stars.flab.Fujitsu.JUNET> <6361@columbia.edu>
Distribution: comp.lang.c++
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Liberty Corner NJ
Lines: 21

In article <6361@columbia.edu>, kearns@read.columbia.edu (Steve Kearns) writes:

> I think that one should be able to assign to references.
> Here are some arguments for this idea.  What were the 
> decisions for making them unassignable?

So far no one has come up with a syntax for doing it and
evidence that it's useful enough to be worth the effort
of implementing.

For example, the syntax you suggested:

	&a = b;

can't be used because it already has a meaning: apply the
unary `&' operator to a and assign b to the result.  This may
sound nonsensical until you realize that a might be of a class
for which unary operator& is defined and returns an lvalue.
-- 
				--Andrew Koenig
				  ark@europa.att.com