Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!apple!well!al
From: al@well.sf.ca.us (Alfred Fontes)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Derive everything from single class?
Keywords: design
Message-ID: <20022@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: 25 Aug 90 07:28:36 GMT
Distribution: comp
Lines: 13


I've noticed in a couple of general-purpose C++ libraries that all of the
classes descend from a single "Object" class.  This has several benefits,
and gives C++ some of the nice features of Smalltalk.

This approach, however, was left out of the original language design.  I 
get nervous about deriving everything from a single class, because doing 
so rejects that design decision.  After all, maybe these class libraries 
are trading off strong type checking for extra flexibility.  Or perhaps 
the "everything's an object" is perfectly acceptable, but was left out of 
C++ to maintain compatibility with existing code. 

Any comments about this?