Personal predilection:
----------------------
Having first encountered strong typing in Pascal
I am one of those programmers who will forever
write
char* ptr
rather than
char *ptr
Issue at hand:
--------------
To make it easy to spot a function name and its
result type I format the definition's function
header across two lines:
<result-type> <class-name> ::
<function-name> ( <format-parameters> )
When writing C++ headers I always provide inline
definitions outside of the class declaration.
If this is an inline definition I would like to
write
<result-type> inline <class-name> ::
<function-name> ( <format-parameters> )
Unfortunately this only works if <result-type>
is a single identifier. Consider this example:
class C {
int F_simple_type();
int* F_inline_first();
int* F_split_type();
int* F_desired();
int X;
};
int inline C::
F_simple_type()
{
return X;
}
inline int* C::
F_inline_first()
{
return &X;
}
int inline *C::
F_split_type()
{
return &X;
}
int* inline C::
F_desired()
{
return &X;
}
F_simple_type shows that I can use my preferred
format when <result-type> is simple. F_inline_first
and F_split_type show syntaxes that are accepted by
the g++ 3.4.2 complier. But when I try use this
preferred format with a complex type (e.g. F_desired)
I get the errors:
error: expected unqualified-id before "inline"
error: expected init-declarator before "inline"
error: expected `,' or `;' before "inline"
Request to list:
----------------
Could someone who is familiar with the C++ standard
explain the logic that makes -- what for at least
some programmers is the clearest format -- invalid?
/john
--
John S. Yates, Jr. 508 665-6897 (voice)
Netezza Inc 508 665-6811 (fax)
200 Crossing Blvd. Framingham, MA 01701
