Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c++:4117 gnu.g++:298 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!bbn.com!lpringle From: lpringle@bbn.com (Lewis G. Pringle) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,gnu.g++ Subject: Re: Default argument values Message-ID: <43253@bbn.COM> Date: 25 Jul 89 15:48:16 GMT References: Sender: news@bbn.COM Reply-To: lpringle@labs-n.bbn.com (Lewis G. Pringle) Distribution: comp Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA Lines: 19 In article fox@cs.cs.columbia.edu (David Fox) writes: >The way to do this is to allow caller to name the parameters >the way Ada does: foo(parm1 = a, parm3 = b, parm2 = c). I second the emotion, but it may be harder than it looks. What your are describing (I think) are called keyword parameters. The difficulty, is that they impose even more ambiguity into the language. Default params, together with overloading, and conversion operators, already add lots ambiguity - keyword paramers would make things even worse. The ambiguity can - of cousrse be resolved by disambiguating rules. Any ADA people want to share their experiences. Lewis. "OS/2: half an operating system for half a computer." In Real Life: Lewis Gordon Pringle Jr. Electronic Mail: lpringle@labs-n.bbn.com Phone: (617) 873-4433