Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!cvl!elsie!nih-csl!keith
From: keith@nih-csl.UUCP (keith gorlen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: null news is bad news
Message-ID: <293@nih-csl.UUCP>
Date: 28 Dec 87 15:41:54 GMT
References: <185@goofy.megatest.UUCP> <191@fxgrp.UUCP>
Organization: NIH-CSL, Bethesda, MD
Lines: 27
Summary: The real solution is to wait until C++ has exception handling

In article <191@fxgrp.UUCP>, ljz@fxgrp.UUCP (Lloyd Zusman, Master Byte Software) writes:
> In article <185@goofy.megatest.UUCP> djones@megatest.UUCP (Dave Jones) writes:
$ $
$ $
$ $In THE BOOK, on page 93, it says, "For historical reasons, *new* simply
$ $returns the pointer 0 when it cannot find enough store and no *_new_handler*
$ $has been specified."
$ $ ...
$ $Can anyone give me a good reason why I should not hack *new* so that
$ $it prints an error message and terminates the program when core is
$ $exhausted and there is no *_new_handler*?  Is there, or is there
$ $likely to be,  code out there which DEPENDS on *new* returning 0?
$ $ ...
$ 
$ Please, please, please ... I beg of you, PLEASE don't do that.
$  

I agree.  This sort of problem currently has no good solution in C++
(or in C for that matter).  What is needed is an exception handling
mechanism like that of BLISS or ADA.  Bjarne discusses this issue in
his paper "Possible Directions for C++", which is to be published soon
in the Proceedings of the First USENIX C++ Workshop.
-- 
	Keith Gorlen			phone: (301) 496-5363
	Building 12A, Room 2017		uucp: uunet!mimsy!elsie!nih-csl!keith
	National Institutes of Health
	Bethesda, MD 20892