Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!daver!tscs!tct!chip From: chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++ Subject: Re: asking an object for its type Message-ID: <27C2D580.3B49@tct.uucp> Date: 20 Feb 91 20:01:03 GMT References: <23984@netcom.COM> <1190@sheol.UUCP> <1991Feb19.000449.22255@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> Organization: Teltronics/TCT, Sarasota, FL Lines: 17 According to craig@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Craig Hubley): >But in more intelligent O-O languages, asking the type, or better, >asking if there is a diameter, is a fundamental operation in type >Object that all objects can do. "More intelligent"? Your prejudices are showing. :-) C++ is statically typed. And there is no requirement that all classes be derived from a hypthetical Object class. So the features you desire cannot be accomplished in C++. BTW, I happen to find C++ an excellent tool for _exactly_ those reasons. I pay only for those OOP features I need, and no more. -- Chip Salzenberg at Teltronics/TCT , "It's not a security hole, it's a SECURITY ABYSS." -- Christoph Splittgerber (with reference to the upage bug in Interactive UNIX and Everex ESIX)