On Wed, Dec 01, 2010 at 03:49:40AM -0500, Chris Wolf scratched on the wall:
> It depends on your definition of "object". I hate to nit-pick, but for > me, "object" may contain data or code or both data and code. So with > this definition, C implements objects without code. C++ classes don't "contain" code any more than structs do. The language has syntax that allows the method declarations (but not definitions) to be linked, but it isn't like a class instance has compiled code inside of it. The function definitions aren't even within the class definition... class methods are defined as stand-alone top-level functions with the linker taking care of all the details. Besides, it is easy enough to put function pointers into a struct. Plenty of us were doing that for years, long before C++ started to gain ground. This is more or less how virtual methods are implemented anyways. Yes, you have to initialize the pointers manually, but the same is true of the data values in a struct-- or classes for that matter. The only difference is that you have to remember to manually call your init function in C. Using function pointers also allows redefinition of methods on the fly without re-instancing an object, essentially giving the ability to morph an object from one class type to another type in-place. It is unfortunate that the C/C++ function pointer syntax is so odd. It scares a lot of people away from a very powerful tool that can be used for all kinds of generic programming. It's also worth pointing out that, while objects are core to the C++ language, I don't think anyone with wide experience in high-level object oriented languages would consider C++ to be a particularly representational OO language. If C++ is your primary exposure to an OO language, you are likely to have a somewhat twisted view of what OO is all about. In many ways, C++ is to OO as SQL is to the Relational Model. Close, but not quite, in so many small but important ways. [And with that reference, this post has something to do with databases!] -j -- Jay A. Kreibich < J A Y @ K R E I B I.C H > "Intelligence is like underwear: it is important that you have it, but showing it to the wrong people has the tendency to make them feel uncomfortable." -- Angela Johnson _______________________________________________ sqlite-users mailing list sqlite-users@sqlite.org http://sqlite.org:8080/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users
