Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!geaclib!daveb
From: daveb@geaclib.UUCP (David Collier-Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Subject: Re: Reserved identifiers, was Re: Thoughts on moving towards ANSI
Message-ID: <3669@geaclib.UUCP>
Date: 12 Feb 89 03:16:30 GMT
Article-I.D.: geaclib.3669
References: <23551@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Organization: GEAC Computers, Toronto, CANADA
Lines: 31


  At some point the compiler-writers are going to have to start
thinking about known (often partial) solutions to the namespace
pollution problems of simple languages like C. (and PL/1, lest
anyone think I'm being snarky with the use of "simple").
  Several of these are
	1) making unnecessary names disappear
		a) the C "static" keyword
		b) the Multics "binder"
	2) making all names unique
		a) class.element or class_$element
		b) user-defined prefixes 
		c) name: composed: out: of: whole: calling: sequence:
	3) explicit namespace-selection
		a) with x; use x
		b) invoke x
		c) import x from y
	4) controlled vocabulary
		a) the following 5280 words are reserved...

  I recommend against the last.  Considering the origins of C, I'd
suggest re-raising the idea of a binder once again.  I once wrote
one for a linker which produced almost-ready-to-run code, and found
that all I had to do was remove external-symbol records...

--dave (I thought it was elegant. My boss KNEW I was lazy) c-b
-- 
 David Collier-Brown.  | yunexus!lethe!dave
 Interleaf Canada Inc. |
 1550 Enterprise Rd.   | He's so smart he's dumb.
 Mississauga, Ontario  |       --Joyce C-B