Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c++:6050 gnu.g++:587
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!kl-cs!nott-cs!gas
From: gas@cs.nott.ac.uk (Alan Shepherd)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,gnu.g++
Subject: function modifiers
Message-ID: <14940@robin.cs.nott.ac.uk>
Date: 9 Jan 90 09:01:26 GMT
Sender: root@cs.nott.ac.uk
Reply-To: gas@cs.nott.ac.uk (Alan Shepherd)
Organization: Computer Science, Nottingham Univ., UK.
Lines: 25


In the code for the NIH library, there are several declarations of the
following form:

	  const Object* Object::method() const;

and also:

          friend const Object* Object::method() const;

I've tried to compile this with g++-1.36.2 and discovered that friends
aren't allowed to have function modifiers in g++ i.e the terminating const. 
Looking at the gnu manual, it seems that the use of the terminating const
(see 6.12) supposedly has a meaning unique to g++, yet must be legal syntax
for AT&T 2.0 since the library is written for that compiler.  

Removing the terminating const causes lots of other related error messages
to do with const member functions calling non-const member functions etc.
Unfortunately, we don't have AT&T C++ or a reference manual, so I'm unsure
of the precise effect the use of const.

Could someone clarify this for me please and perhaps clear up the differences
between AT&T and G++ ?

Alan Shepherd