Named Parameter syntax for C++ ?
By Schneemann. Thursday, 31. May 2007, 00:23:00
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Named_parameter
How could this very nice feature from Objective-C be integrated in harmony with C/C++/C#/java syntax? Well, at least arguments should be in the round brackets of an argument list.
Assume you have a function with multiple arguments.
In a function call you want to refer to the arguments by name, to avoid mistakes in the ordering, and to reduce the number of redundant arguments that are necessary.
The straightforward approach would use the '=' operator - but this causes problems. Using ':' should work better.
That's it. Looks quite nice to me, even more logical than the syntax in Objective-C. And it doesn't interfere with anything in existing C++/java/whatever.
How could this very nice feature from Objective-C be integrated in harmony with C/C++/C#/java syntax? Well, at least arguments should be in the round brackets of an argument list.
Assume you have a function with multiple arguments.
void foo(string message="", int min_index=0, int max_index=10) {
..
}In a function call you want to refer to the arguments by name, to avoid mistakes in the ordering, and to reduce the number of redundant arguments that are necessary.
The straightforward approach would use the '=' operator - but this causes problems. Using ':' should work better.
int main() {
..
int n=10;
foo(message = "helloworld"); // problem: possible ambiguity with assignment operator!!
foo(message: "helloworld", max_index: n); // should work, looks clean.
..
// which also allows more freedom in ordering
foo(
min_index: 0,
max_index: n,
message: "helloworld"
);
}That's it. Looks quite nice to me, even more logical than the syntax in Objective-C. And it doesn't interfere with anything in existing C++/java/whatever.
