[GD-General] Re: Simulating constrained genericity in C++

[Jesse J. <jes...@mi...>]

At 11:17 AM -0800 12/26/01, Brian Hook wrote:
>http://sivut.koti.soon.fi/epulkkin/instructive/simulating-constrained-ge
>nericity.html
>
>I had no idea there was so much crap involved with generic programming.

This approach is fundamentally wrong: unlike Eiffel C++ doesn't use 
classes to model attributes like being assignable or addable. Because 
of this templates work more like objects in a dynamic language and 
rely on name commonality. Of course, in practice there are some 
problems with doing this (like bizarre error messages). Check out 
<http://www.boost.org/libs/concept_check/concept_check.htm> for a 
solution that fits in better with C++.

>Eiffel so far seems like the best implementation I've seen, but the
>language (and implementations) has so many other issues that it doesn't
>look feasible for tool development.

Eiffel reminds me of Modula-2: a really nice implementation of 
yesterdays paradigm. But it just doesn't offer enough over C++ to be 
compelling (for me at least).

   -- Jesse