Third public review of X3J11 C (a scientist speaks up)

[Henry Spencer]

In article <1317 at garth.UUCP> smryan at garth.UUCP (Steven Ryan) writes:
>Some people have been asking for access to machine specific features. C is
>good at getting at machine features for one particular machine whether they
>exist or not.
>... Does C++ do the same or does it define its machine independent operators
>in terms of specific machine features and give programmers access to the same
>mechanism?

C++ is essentially a superset of C, so it takes the same approach as C.
In both, there is no reason why a perceptive implementor can't provide
machine-specific hooks for users to use to implement packages which have
machine-independent interfaces.  This works rather better in C++, mind
you, because package interfaces are much nicer in C++.
-- 
Intel CPUs are not defective,  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
they just act that way.        | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry at zoo.toronto.edu