🚀 go-pugleaf

Marueli Sunny (sunny@libra.math.tau.ac.il) wrote:
: class foo
: {
: private:
: 	Type Member : read GetMember, write SetMember;
: };

I'm not sure of the point of this syntax, but either way it would be too
limiting. Something that comes up often is where the get method ought
to be public, but the set method shouldn't.

So, we'd have to change the syntax to:
class foo
{
private:
      Type Member : public read GetMember, protected write SetMember;
};

or, since we want to split interface (public or protected) from the internals
we'd want GetMember in the public section, and SetMember in the protected
section, perhaps with syntax like this:
class foo  
{
public:
    Type GetMember : read Member;
protected:
    void SetMember : write Member;
}

Member could be either declared, or figured out as a private member of
type Type. But is this really any better than
class foo {
public:
    Type GetMember { return Member; }
protected:
    void SetMember(const Type& m) { Member = m; }
private:
    Type Member;
}

BTW, I prefer using Type member() and void member(const Type&) as a naming
convention for access functions. Less verbose, but just as clear.


Perhaps a suggestion would have been to allow member v'bles to have a
pair of access modifiers, and allow automatically generated access functions
have each of the pair. For example
class foo
{
public read, protected write:
    Type Member;
}

which automatically generates a v'ble and two access function all of the same
name. The fact that the three have different manglings saves the linker from
ambiguity, and the lack of prototype vs. two different prototypes clears up
compiler issues.
Actually, such a system could force all member variable private, always
generate access functions. We could just take "public:" as shorthand for
"public read, public write:", etc...

Interesting feature, won't happen.


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