MCENANEY WILLIAM J wrote:
>
> 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
Redesign C.
Somebody has already done that for you.
It's called C++, and what you want to do is "operator overloading". You
probably heard about it somewhere already. If you are interested, check
it out. With nice objects and all.
--
Maarten van Leunen
Student - Fontys Institute of Technology Eindhoven
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.il.fontys.nl/~maartenl
http://lok.il.fontys.nl/
