🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul21.232959.13540@sunb10.cs.uiuc.edu> pjl@sparc1.cs.uiuc.edu (Paul Lucas) writes:
|*****>	operator= has got nothing to do with it unless the thing that []
|	returns is itself a class object (in which case operator= would
|	be overloaded in _that_ class--whether operator= is overloaded
|	in _this_ class is irrelevant...unless you're doing something
|	non-canonical).  operator[] should return a reference to the
|	thing...that's it; the assignment just happens.  

The overloading of operator= becomes relevant IF some committee members
succeed in changing the language such that functions cannot be invoked
on temporaries.  Then the common approach of returning a SmartRef from
operator[] fails:

bitarray[100] = TRUE; // code in error if functions cannot
                      // be invoked on temporaries!

because this really means:

bitarray.operator[](100).operator=(TRUE);

where operator[] is returning a temporary SmartBitRef that in turn has
its operator= on it.