Re: 'withing' problem [code generation]

["David Crocker" <dcrocker@imsltd.com>]

No, Java's solution has nothing to do with the fact that Java non-primitive
types are reference types. It has everything to do with the compiler being
flexible enough process declarations in whatever order necessary to perform
type checking without needing forward declarations.

Our own language (see www.eschertech.com) does not treat non-primitive types
as reference types, and we also allow forward-referencing of and circular
depedencies between types. It does mean that you need at least a 2-pass
compiler, but the days when this meant physically reading the source twice
are long gone.
--
David Crocker, Escher Technologies Ltd. www.eschertech.com


"Mark Lundquist" <up.yerz@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:B8zK7.51483$XJ4.30270717@news1.sttln1.wa.home.com...
>
> "David Crocker" <dcrocker@imsltd.com> wrote in message
> news:3bfa84ca$0$8514$ed9e5944@reading.news.pipex.net...
> >
> > The nicest solution is the one used by Java (and by our own product) -
no
> > restriction at all on forward referencing classes/types, or on packages
> > referring to each other (except for absurd cases like 2 classes
inheriting
> > from each other). This is the way all programming languages should go,
> IMO.
>
> OK -- but isn't Java's solution more of just a side-benefit of being a
> by-reference language?
>
> It seems like there are some underlying trade-offs :-)
>
> Cheers,
> -- Mark Lundquist
> http://members.home.com/mlundquist2/consulting
>
>
>