Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!microsoft!jimad
From: jimad@microsoft.UUCP (Jim ADCOCK)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: mutual dependence of types
Message-ID: <70068@microsoft.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jan 91 20:12:19 GMT
References: <35527@netnews.upenn.edu>
Reply-To: jimad@microsoft.UUCP (Jim ADCOCK)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 63

In article <35527@netnews.upenn.edu> atteson@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Kevin Atteson ) writes:
|Is there any way to do the following in C++ and if so how?
|
|class A
|{
|	...
|public:
|	class B func1()
|	{
|		...
|	}
|};
|
|class B
|{
|	...
|public:
|	class A func2()
|	{
|		...
|	}
|};
|
|I don't want to return pointers to the classes.
|I am a recent initiate to C++ and so I apologize if the question is obvious.
|Please send responses directly to me and post them if you think it useful.

No apologies necessary -- the number of C++ users continues to double
about every nine months.  Thus most C++ users are neophytes, and the 
few people who have been programming in C++ for a more than a year get to
play "expert". And thus, its important that these fundamental
questions continue to be asked and answered.  Consider:

extern "C"
{
	#include <stdio.h>
}

class A
{
public:
	A() { printf("making an A\t"); };
	class B func1();
};

class B
{
public:
	B() { printf("making a  B\t"); };
	class A func2();
};

B A::func1() { printf("\nIn A::func1 :"); return B(); }

A B::func2() { printf("\nIn B::func2 :"); return A(); }

main()
{
	A a;
	B b;
	a.func1();
	b.func2();
}