Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!taumet!steve
From: steve@taumet.com (Stephen Clamage)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Implementing inheritance
Keywords: C++ inheritance implementation description
Message-ID: <626@taumet.com>
Date: 19 Mar 91 16:02:51 GMT
References: <1991Mar14.233914.14777@evax.arl.utexas.edu> <1885@news.tcs.com> <3398@litchi.bbn.com>
Distribution: all
Organization: Taumetric Corporation, San Diego
Lines: 20

rsalz@bbn.com (Rich Salz) writes:

>I wish I never had to learn anything about virtual function tables.  Unfortunately,
>it seems impossible to learn C++ these days without knowing them.

This seems like an odd comment.  Why would you need to know anything at
all about virtual tables to learn C++?  There is nothing at all in the 
language definition which requires virtual tables to exist, let alone
have any particular format.  It is a convenient implementation technique
used in current compilers, but you don't need to know about virtual tables
unless you are writing analysis tools which work on executable files.

You do need to understand the syntax and semantics of virtual functions,
along with the rules for scoping and name hiding, to use C++ effectively for
complex applications.  Knowing the details of virtual tables seems no
more necessary than knowing the details of any other code generation
technique.
-- 

Steve Clamage, TauMetric Corp, steve@taumet.com