Re: Another good URL for all you C++ haters

[Tucker Taft <stt@avercom.net>]

Florian Weimer wrote:
> 
> chris.m.moore@amsjv.com (Chris M. Moore) writes:
> 
> >   Even Floyd, who loves the language, admits that, "Its greatest
> >   weaknesses is a flaw in the interface/implementation separation. A
> >   class exposes its private data/methods to the world and a programmer
> >   must use some tricks (that should be supported directly in the
> >   language) to overcome this."
> 
> Doesn't have Ada a similar problem?

Ada requires the full definition of a private type to be
in the package spec, but it doesn't require the declaration
of "helper" functions the way C++ does.  Helper functions
can be declared in the package body, without perturbing the spec.

[In C++, one can use a "friend" class to contain the helper
functions, but that is pretty obscure.]

Note that both C++ and Ada allow access/pointer types to be declared
without exposing the full details of the target type.
-- 
-Tucker Taft   stt@avercom.net   http://www.avercom.net
Chief Technology Officer, AverCom Corporation (A Titan Company) 
Bedford, MA  USA (AverCom was formerly the Commercial Division of AverStar:
http://www.averstar.com/~stt)