Re: What does "C++ doesn't support modules" mean?

From: Alf P. Steinbach (alfps_at_start.no)
Date: 04/15/04 

Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 12:28:24 GMT

* "Steven T. Hatton" <susudata@setidava.kushan.aa> schriebt:
> I've seen people here write that C++ doesn't support modules. What does
> that mean? 'Module' is a very nebulous term in my book. It probably means
> something quite different to me than what it does to people making that
> comment about C++. Can someone explain what they mean when they say C++
> doesn't support modules?

Probably modules as in Modula "module", Ada "package", Pascal "unit",
Java "package", Perl "package", and so on, where the language provides
some form of module import which includes linking information and
preferably also type-checking while suppressing implementation details,
and preferably also some support for module initialization & cleanup.

In C++ logical modules must, as many other things, be implemented by
convention only (using textual includes & separate compilation).

And module initialization & cleanup is not possible to ensure in the
most general case; also that must rely on convention & documentation.
To wit, the standard library's named iostreams must rely on a mechanism
that is unavailable to the C++ programmer. The main problem in solving
this unfortunate situation is to still provide backward compatibility. 

-- 
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