Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!ALTAR.EE.BYU.EDU!jlol
From: jlol@ALTAR.EE.BYU.EDU (Jay Lawlor)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: C++ gets typecast (SUNEXPERT July 1990)
Message-ID: <9007230453.AA12697@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 23 Jul 90 04:20:13 GMT
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Reply-To: jlol@ee.byu.edu
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	In the NEWS section (page 14) of my July 1990 issue of "SUNEXPERT", there
	was an announcement entitled "C++ Gets Typecast".  In a nutshell, it
	states that C++ will soon have parameterized types.

Since someone brought up the subject, I have a question.  I read the
section on parameterized types in the "Selected Readings" manual
(don't have it on me right now for exact page or anything) that came
with AT&T Cfront 2.0.  I was disappointed when I came to the sentence
about how C++ didn't support it but it could be faked with macros (I
believe the Stroustrup book gives an example.)

So my question is, is there something difficult about implementing it
(I'm not a compiler expert) or was it just a whizzy feature that
wasn't deemed useful enough to clutter the language with until now?

I understand the necessity of making sure the member functions used in
the parameterized type exist for each class that might use it.  What
other difficulties are there, and, is it worth it given that it could
be done using macros?

Jay
jlol@ee.byu.edu