Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!haven!uvaarpa!mcnc!thorin!luther!tuck
From: tuck@luther.cs.unc.edu (Russ Tuck)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: objective C
Message-ID: <8016@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Date: 3 May 89 15:15:41 GMT
References: <2614@ssc-vax.UUCP> <3180@stpstn.UUCP> <15327@gryphon.COM> <1546@sw1e.UUCP>
Sender: news@thorin.cs.unc.edu
Reply-To: tuck@luther.UUCP (Russ Tuck)
Organization: University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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In article <1546@sw1e.UUCP> uucibg@sw1e.UUCP (Brian Gilstrap [5-3929]) writes:
>Joe writes a class called Window and compiles it for a particular workstation/
>OS release.  The implementation of Window is of arbitrary complexity (e.g. it
>may involve virtual functions or any other construct allowed by C++).  He then
>sends the compiled file plus a '.h' to Fred.
>
>Fred uses the .h to write a class derived from Window, compiles it, and links
>it together with the object file for Window (along with other stuff) to produce
>a working program.
>
>Will this work?

Of course!  C++ is a superset of C, so if C can do it, so can C++.  
This includes separate compilation.  (There are a few minor syntactic
differences that make C++ not a precise C superset, but it's rare to 
need to worry about them.)

>... how to you handle inline functions of a class?

The source to inline functions is in the .h file.  (Since inline functions
are only useful if very small, typically one-liners or even a single variable
reference, I don't think this will bother vendors of binary-only libraries.)

Russ Tuck		               internet: tuck@cs.unc.edu
Computer Science Dept., Sitterson Hall csnet:    tuck@unc
University of North Carolina           uucp:     ...!mcnc!unc!tuck
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175, USA        Phone:    (919) 962-1755 or 962-1932