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From: grs@ncoast.UUCP (Gregg R. Siegfried)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: Proposal to add modules to C
Message-ID: <716@ncoast.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 27-May-85 04:02:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: ncoast.716
Posted: Mon May 27 04:02:35 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 31-May-85 00:15:46 EDT
References: <5606@utzoo.UUCP>
Reply-To: grs@ncoast.UUCP (Gregg Siegfried)
Organization: North Coast Xenix, Cleveland, OH
Lines: 25

In article <5606@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes:
>
>Because I want to ensure that no *deliberate* changes or references are
>made!!  That variable is a detail of the *implementation* of the module
>in question, and outsiders are not entitled to use it because the
>implementation is subject to change.  There are some really ugly places
>in Unix where programs *know* details of the implementation of stdio,
>for example.  Making things like that globally accessible essentially makes
>them part of the specification of the module, hence very hard to change
>even if they are later seen as serious mistakes.
>-- 

	I think a change like this would corrupt the language, rather than
provide a way to implement hidden types.  I found Modula-2 quite useful
for doing just what you described.  That there don't seem to be any Modula-2
compilers for Unix systems should be a small concern however.  If there
isn't one under construction, there *should* be.

					Gregg Siegfried

..decvax!cwruecmp!ncoast!grs

[When all else fails...use assembler]
"If you want to catch a lot of fish, you need a big net."