On 12/18/2013 06:33 PM, Joseph Rushton Wakeling wrote:
On 18/12/13 18:20, Timon Gehr wrote:
Well, 'const' attached to a method is simply the notation used for
attaching
'const' to the implicit 'this' parameter.
Sure, but if you see a method:
struct Foo
{
const int bar() { ... }
}
... the instinctive interpretation of that is "This is a method that
returns a const int." You soon learn your mistake, but once you have,
the mental association between one form of const and the other makes
sense, even if you don't appreciate the subtlety of the fact that it's
referring to the implicit "this" parameter.
I suggest attaching const, immutable, etc. to constructors is similarly
helpful by analogy, even if it strictly speaking means using the same
keyword for two different things.
Something that would be closer to what is happening here would be to
make the 'const' annotation on a method denote purity.
