Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!ames!sri-spam!distek4!mckenney
From: mckenney@sri.com (Paul E. McKenney)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Why doesn't c++ allow overloading member operators?
Message-ID: <11778@sri-spam.istc.sri.com>
Date: 15 Mar 88 23:31:57 GMT
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Reply-To: mckenney@sri.com (Paul E. McKenney)
Organization: SRI International
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Several c++ gurus around here told me that it is usually bad practice
to allow explicit access to instance variables in c++, that it was
better to define member functions to do the job.
This seemed very strange to me until I found that c++ does not allow
redefinition of the `.name' operators.  Of course, if you cannot
redefine these functions, then allowing explicit access to the
instance variables will `freeze' the representation of the object --
bad for software maintenance.

So, why doesn't c++ allow `.name' operators to be redefined?

				Thanx, Paul
				mckenney@sri.com