Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!ctrsol!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ginosko!uunet!zeek!paul
From: paul@zeek.UUCP (Paul T. Cottey)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: C++ 2.0 question
Summary: overloading
Message-ID: <254@zeek.UUCP>
Date: 6 Oct 89 16:08:21 GMT
References: <803@odin.SGI.COM>
Organization: Andersen Consulting
Lines: 21

In article <803@odin.SGI.COM>, kipp@warp.sgi.com (Kipp Hickman) writes:
> 
> So what the heck is overloading operator, (operator comma!) good for?
> I can imagine several ugly things, but no nice ones...
> 
> 					kipp

Stroustrup, on page 122-3, suggests that a print function may be
overloaded to know how to print integers, floats, characters, etc.

He also states that in the cases of +, *, and <<, it would be 
essential to be able to call a different part of an overloaded function
depending on the type(s) of the operands.  For example, it is different
to multiply an integer by an integer than to multiply a float by an
integer.

It is a good idea to use "overload" with care.

Paul

uunet!zeek!paul