Re: that is what I am looking for

Post #107,155 by admin 6/24/03 4:33:53 PM Reply	Re: that is what I am looking for If you don't want a language to go mainstream, one of the best ways to ensure they don't is to include closure support. Exactly! Like Perl! That's a mainstream language that doesn't have... oh, wait... Python? Nope... erm. C++! Oh, wait, generics can do that... C, then? Function pointers. Oh dear. Java? Strategy pattern can be used to emulate it. Let's look at it this way: what mainstream languages don't have closures? FoxPro... yeaaaahhhh.... um... SQL. But that's a specialty data access language. Assembler? COBOL? What was the point again...? Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #107,182 by deSitter 6/24/03 8:42:36 PM Reply	What's that? C, then? Function pointers. Oh dear. Java? Strategy pattern can be used to emulate it. I don't know what a strategy pattern is - what does this mean? What's a "strategy pattern"? I would prefer not to guess. In C function pointers provided a form of overloading - I'm sure cfront must have exploited this in the early days. Even FORTRAN had this, in the form of multiple entry points. -drl
Post #107,191 by admin 6/24/03 10:00:36 PM Reply	Re: What's that? [link\|http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?StrategyPattern\|http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?StrategyPattern] Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #107,354 by tuberculosis 6/26/03 12:32:37 AM Reply	Actually Java Anonymous Inner Classes are closures - but the syntax for declaring one is so cumbersome that nobody bothers to use them that way. Bistro makes use of them that way - but Bistro is more of a thought experiment than a usable language (the preprocessor doesn't give decent diagnostics and debugging is impossible). [link\|http://bistro.sourceforge.net/\|http://bistro.sourceforge.net/] "One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs." -- Robert Firth
Post #107,388 by Arkadiy 6/26/03 11:56:46 AM Reply	If I remember correctly, anonymous inner classes cannot use local variables from the scope around them. In fact, apart from their "inner" quality they don't have any connection to the context where they were created. That, and not their awkward syntax is the reason they aren't used. -- Less Is More. In my book, About Face, I introduce over 50 powerful design axioms. This is one of them. --Alan Cooper. The Inmates Are Running the Asylum
Post #107,393 by admin 6/26/03 12:13:58 PM Reply	Not entirely accurate. Local variables and method parameters can be used if they are declared "final". The compiler actually passes the local vars to the constructor/initializer (anonymous local classes do not have constructors) of the anonymous class. Instance members are accessed through hidden private accessor methods. Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #107,395 by Arkadiy 6/26/03 12:46:09 PM Reply	Thanks Now I remember the anguish of copying the value to another variable just to get it through to the anonymous. What a joke. -- Less Is More. In my book, About Face, I introduce over 50 powerful design axioms. This is one of them. --Alan Cooper. The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

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