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From: Kevin.Williams@f64.n128.z1.fidonet.org (Kevin Williams)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2
Subject: Re: Why no ** operator in Modula2?
Message-ID: <1717.285A64EB@puddle.fidonet.org>
Date: 10 Jun 91 22:48:00 GMT
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Hello Mike!

In a msg of <05 Jun 91>, Mike Dorman writes to All:

 MD> Someone opined in a Dr. Dobbs Journal many years back, that one
 MD> obvious addition to Modula-2 (or any other language, for that matter)
 MD> is a keyword like OPERATOR, or something, which would let you define
 MD> thingies which you use to perform operations on variables, like **.
 MD>
 MD> The only problem I see is that it would either have to take into
 MD> account all possible variable types, or be variable-type-specific.  It
 MD> would be quite nice to be able to write a + operator for concatenating
 MD> strings, and stuff like that.

  Yes, but most of the operators in Modula-2 ARE type specific.  If they would add in a "CLASS" structure as part of the standard, it would make the def. of operators not only MUCH easier, but make them make more sense too (for example, what does POINTER_TYPE_VAR ** mean?).  Modula-2 has a great chance of making good sense of object orientedness, if they would get away from the standards of thinking and teaching (and especially if they would quit saying that THIS way is the ONLY way).

     kwill


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