Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!usc!samsung!ctrsol!emory!att!dptg!ulysses!andante!alice!bs
From: bs@alice.UUCP (Bjarne Stroustrup)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Do class libraries have to be in source form (2 of 4)
Summary: could it depend?
Message-ID: <10178@alice.UUCP>
Date: 24 Nov 89 14:49:52 GMT
References: <177@taumet.UUCP> <1989Nov22.181203.16204@mentor.com> <256CEFDE.15973@paris.ics.uci.edu>
Distribution: comp
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ
Lines: 14



Could it be that there is a class of libraries for which source is essential,
a class of libraries for which source is merely useful, and a class of libraries
for which source is mainly trouble? If so, can we at this stage predict which
kinds of libraries will fall into which classes and give guidelines (to people
writing and distributing libraries) for when to ship source?

Two observations:

	Type-safe linkage increases the amount of information available in
	the object code; this ought to help where source is not available.

	Parameterized types (templates) is a source code technology.