Hi Glynn,
Maybe this time I'll say what I mean. My general point is that if I could
redesign C, I would replace functions such as strcmp() with the correspond-
ing relational operators. To find out whether two strings were equal to
each other, I would use a relational equal sign. The statement,
"if (strcmp (s1, s2) == 0)" would become "if (s1 = s2)". That change
would overload the relational equal sign.
But what about the equal sign for assigning a value to a variable? Well,
I would replace that with a left arrow. Then nodody would think that
the assignment operator was a relational equal sign.
Was "abstraction" the wrong word to use? I want my programs to protect
their readers from minute details. If somebody wants to use a stack,
I want that person to be able to think about pushing, popping, clearing,
and so forth, without worrying about how the pushing, popping, and
clearing go on in the black boxes.
You make an important point. Maybe I ought to use a language better for
programming of the sort I want to do. C is a language for systems
programming. Eiffel is not. If I want to hide details, I better use a
language designed to help me do that. I shouldn't try to change C into
another language.
Warm wishes,
Bill
