[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> > lacks a lot of features that I consider necessary for comfortable
> > programming, like garbage collection, reflection and built-in strings,
> > lists, dictionaries, vectors, and first-class functions.
> >
>
> C++ does have built in strings, lists, dictionaries, and vectors. They are all
> part of the standard template library, and string is used as:
We're going off-topic here, but I'm pretty sure that you know as well
as I that "Hi" and "there" are (char const*). The STL is better than
nothing, but to me a library does not qualify as built-in.
> I'm not exactly sure what you mean by first-class function, but if you mean
> functors, or function objects (an object that is a function - better than a
> function pointer), C++ has those, too.
First-class means first-class citizens, that is, objects of that type
can be used in all language constructs just like other objects. For
example, a function that returns a function in Scheme is natural,
(define (iterate func k)
"Produce the function x -> FUNC(FUNC .. (x) .. ) "
(if (> k 0)
(lambda (x) (func ((iterate func (1- k)) x)))
(lambda (x) x)))
(define to-6th-power (iterate sqr 3))
If you're suitably masochistic, then you could come up with a C++
solution, but I doubt it would be natural or elegant. Besides, I don't
appreciate masochism when it comes to programming.
> I'm not exactly sure what you mean by reflection, so I cannot comment. As far
> as size, yes it's large, but I believe there are compiler settings to reduce the
> size by dropping some unnecessary libraries (like error handling).
I'm not referring to code size.
Quality of software is measured by its simplicity, and the 2000-page
thick C++ standard is a bad omen in this regard.
--
Han-Wen Nienhuys | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen
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