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From: stt@inmet.inmet.com
Newsgroups: comp.std.c++
Subject: Re: Separate Decl of Private Member Fcn
Message-ID: <259400002@inmet>
Date: 13 Aug 90 14:38:00 GMT
References: <259400001@inmet>
Lines: 21
Nf-ID: #R:inmet:259400001:inmet:259400002:000:775
Nf-From: inmet.inmet.com!stt    Aug 13 10:38:00 1990


Re: Separate Decl of Private Member Fcn

The obvious solution to the concerns about allowing
member functions to be added after the end of the class
declaration is to require that they be private and static.
This makes them visible only to the other member functions,
and prevents "hijacking."

I have used Ada for ten years and the ability to add private functions
with visibility to private data, without disturbing the
declaration of a type is essential to the enhancement
and sane maintenance of a large system.

After all, that is why "static" functions were added to the
original C.  It would be a shame if private static member functions in C++
couldn't have the same limited per-file visibility they have in C.

S. Tucker Taft
Intermetrics, Inc.
Cambridge, MA  02138