Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!rutgers!bellcore!faline!thumper!ulysses!andante!alice!bs From: bs@alice.UUCP (Bjarne Stroustrup) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++ Subject: Re: Where is "private:" documented? Message-ID: <8138@alice.UUCP> Date: 27 Aug 88 23:46:08 GMT References: Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ Lines: 18 In article , cooper@kbsvax.UUCP (Clark Cooper) writes: > > I've noticed in several examples appearing over the network the use > of "private:" in class declarations. While the use seems clear, "private" > is not listed as a keyword or otherwise documented in Stroustrup. Where is > its use documented (at least with respect to GNU C++). Is it just ornamental? > Can we do anything with it that we can't do without it? > My paper ``The Evolution of C++: 1985-1987'' that I presented at the USENIX C++ ``workshop'' in Santa Fe describes all extensions to C++ in the timespan mentioned and documents a few points that are not extensions but where the documentation had left doubts about the intent. ``private:'' was introduced to support people that wanted more freedom in laying out their code, especially people who wanted the public part to come first. It is a ``cosmetic'' feature.