"Larry Smith" <no_spam@_nospam.com> wrote in message
news:%23B5UxUnIIHA.4592@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
In practice header files are a notorious source of problems.
I think quite generally C/C++ are a notorious source of problems. People
keep telling me they are "hard", when they really mean thay must be "used
with a certain amount of discipline and care". This isn't just header
files, but also your responsibility not to lose pointers to allocated
memory or leave invalid pointers to unallocated memory lying around, and
a whole host of other things.
My first C program, on an early Apricot PC, by means of a wrongly
conceived pointer, made all the letters on the (hercules green-on-black)
monitor go fuzzy round the edges. :-) What other language gives you
that sort of power? :-)
But seriously, C/C++ were designed to give you maximum flexibility. But
as with all powerful weapons, you can point them at your foot and pull
the trigger if you really want to.
On the original topic of this thread: my understanding was that the
construction of more modern languages allows one to use inheritance at
the object-code level without the source code, which may be one reason
for not wanting header files. Again, as I understand it, C++ cannot do
this as it is incompatible with multiple inheritance. Someone correct
me if I'm wrong!
Dave
--
David Webber
Author of 'Mozart the Music Processor'
http://www.mozart.co.uk
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