Re: Order of argument evaluation in C++, etc.

bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A Duff) writes:


      Unfortunately, there are still some "stylistic" rules left -- for example,
      it's still illegal for a function to have an 'out' parameter, which is very
      annoying.


Wow. Even occam2, which is "holier-than-thou" for almost anybody, allows
that. (Actually, a function can return any _list_ of scalar values, due to the
multiple assignment possible. Now, people also want to return fixed-size
arrays...)


      I wonder if it's possible to design the language so that the compiler has a
      better idea of exactly which sub-expressions have side-effects, and what
      those side effects are. (Ada and C++ pretty much require the compiler to
      assume the worst, for a call to a separately compiled function.)


Occam2 allows this, as any function _must_ be side-effect free. This is
checked by the compiler (only IN arguments, results as above, no I/O
statements allowed, no procedure calls). Thus, an occam2 compiler can assume
the best.


Jan


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