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From: bs@alice.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: C++ produced symbols & sdb
Message-ID: <6761@alice.uUCp>
Date: Mon, 30-Mar-87 11:40:15 EST
Article-I.D.: alice.6761
Posted: Mon Mar 30 11:40:15 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 1-Apr-87 01:32:32 EST
References: <384@sdd.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ
Lines: 41
Summary: why cfront mangles names



There are two reasons for the mangling of names of (apparently)
non-overloaded names.

Through derivation a class may have several members of the same name
and you and the compiler must have a way of distinguishing them:

	struct B {
		int a;
		int f();
	};

	struct D : B {
		int a;
		int f(int x) { a = x; B::a = x+1; }
	};

	void ff() {
		D d;
		d.f(2);
		d.B::f();
	}

Names used in inline functions must be ``mangled'' so that the C compiler
can distinguish between global names, names local to the inline function,
and names local to the calling function:

	int a;

	inline f(int a) { return ::a = a++; };

	void g()
	{
		int a;
		int b = f(a);
	}

You can strip the mangeling off to make debugging interaction easier
(though you loose information), but you cannot strip it off so that
the C compiler does not see it without breaking programs.