TITLE: changing the precendence of user defined operators

(Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++, 9 Jul 98)


TABOR: Gavin Tabor <gavin@ic.ac.uk> writes:

 > However I would argue that to really use overloading the
 > user should be allowed to change the precedence of the operator.
 > (Are you listening, Dr. Stroustrup?)


STROUSTRUP: bs@research.att.com (Bjarne Stroustrup)

Sure, I'm listening. However, I decided a long time ago that allowing
significantly more freedom in the definition of user-defined operators
was beyond what was reasonable/feasible for C++. See "The Design and
Evolution of C++" for a discussion of this.

Anyway, the standard is done. If anyone wants a more powerful overloading
mechanism for Standard C++, they have five years to design and experiment
before a major revision can be considered.

See "Generalizing overloading for C++2000" for a lighthearted discussion of
more advanced mechanisms (http://www.research.att.com/~bs/whitespace98.pdf).