TLIMONCE%DREW.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (01/05/88)
mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.EDU writes >> But they do - they add data hiding. A library can provide >Data hiding is the worst idea ever invented. I really hate it when I find >something declared as a "time_t", or , worse, those awful structures >used by VMS C for system calls. Then one has to go back through some long >chain of garbage to find what they really mean. Luckily, this sort of >stuff is not rampant in the C community; [deleted text about > how hideous it can be esp on the Mac] This makes me wonder a couple things. First of all, with properly prototyped code, you don't even *need* lint to catch such errors. (well, that's refering to another post which I haven't re-copied here). Second of all, you think it is the "worst idea ever"? Much of my code relies on data hiding and I like to think it is so reliable ;-) because I do a lot of data abstraction and data hiding. Try it someday. Maybe a good book could clear up any mis-truths you hold about it. (new subject) Someone before asked about ANSI C breaking a lot of old code. First of all, since there was no (ummm...) "official" standard before, it has to break SOME code, right? I think a couple of the more recent complaints started debates when they should have been squelched right off because the perrson wasn't looking at the whole picture (some things couldn't be added alone without the rest of ANSI C being added, eh?). About pragmas, how can one standardize something that is inherantly non-standard? Simple: define it with no teeth. Let pragmas be pragmas. (BTW, I have yet to use a non-UNIX compiler that didn't combine cc and pcc. ;-> ) Tom Limoncelli bitnet: tlimonce@drew.bitnet Disclaimer: "What? Me worry?" ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))