ejbjr@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Branagan) (08/11/87)
In article <2772@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com>, jss@hector..UUCP (Jerry Schwarz) writes: > One of the subtle differences between C and C++ is that tags in C > live in a different name space from ordinary (variable and function) > identifiers whereas in C++ they live in the same name space. Yet another compatability problem. How come we keep hearing `C++ is completely upward compatable with C, except for a few new reserved words'? I have not yet gotten a non-trivial C program to compile correctly under C++, even after the expected global edits to change variable and type names. What bothers me even more than these bogus claims of compatability is that most of these problems seem trivially avoidable. Why change the semantics in such subtle ways, unrelated to the addition of classes? Some of us would like to use C++, but are dragged back by thousands or millions of lines of existing C code unnecessarily made incompatable with C++. Is it too late to back out some of these changes? If not, please make C++ as upward compatable with C as possible. If it is too late, please stop advertizing C++ as upward compatable with C. -- ----------------- Ed Branagan ihnp4!ihlpg!ejbjr (312) 369-7408 (work)