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From: diamond@diamond.csl.sony.junet (Norman Diamond)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Reference Semantics
Message-ID: <10251@socslgw.csl.sony.JUNET>
Date: 15 May 89 07:31:37 GMT
References: <315@odi.ODI.COM> <9310@alice.UUCP>
Sender: news@csl.sony.JUNET
Reply-To: diamond@csl.sony.junet (Norman Diamond)
Organization: Sony Computer Science Laboratory Inc., Tokyo, Japan
Lines: 21

In article <9310@alice.UUCP> shopiro@alice.UUCP (Jonathan Shopiro) writes:

>If you must return a reference
>to an object, you can encode the idea that this object is the result
>of a failed operation in its state, or (here's a gross hack for you)
>
>	extern Type	failedOperationInstanceOfType;
>	Type&	tr = f();  // f can return a reference to the above
>	if (&tr != &failedOperationInstanceOfType) {
>		// use the referenced object
>	}

Doesn't look like a gross hack to me.  Looks like a perfectly correct,
well structured solution, given the premises that a reference must be
returned and that exceptional cases cannot be handled out-of-band.

--
Norman Diamond, Sony Computer Science Lab (diamond%csl.sony.co.jp@relay.cs.net)
  The above opinions are my own.   |  Why are programmers criticized for
  If they're also your opinions,   |  re-implementing the wheel, when car
  you're infringing my copyright.  |  manufacturers are praised for it?