Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp,comp.os.os2.programmer.misc,gnu.gcc.help
Subject: Re: C++ problem -- Over 30 people were unable to help me, can you?!
From: frenchc AT cadvision DOT com (Calvin French)
References: <bWLoegW7sFse-pn2-d679pGp6mnys AT portD23 DOT Generation DOT NET>
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Date: 17 Jan 98 02:24:20 GMT
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<snip>

>when fstream() is called from the constructor initialization.) Does 
>anyone have any idea how this problem could be solved?

I understand your problem. I think, basically there are two things you could 
try. The first I would try (well actually maybe I'd cut right to the second 
because I'm an impatient little hack) is to call the constructor with 
File::fstream(), maybe that alternative will do what you want. I've had so 
much headaches with constructors, I know what it is like and as a result I've 
become a bit jaded as it were. So much so that I might be likely to just do 
this:

class File 
{
   fstream* f;
public:
   File( ...etc... ) { ...etc... };
   virtual ~File() { ...etc...; delete f; };
   ...etc...
};

There is another less obvious advantage to this. Consider how flexible the 
following type of wrapper-class is:

class File
{
   fstream* f;
   bool persistant;
public:
   File( ...etc... ) : persistant(0) { ...etc... };
   File( fstream* F ) : f(F), persistant(1) { ...etc... };
   virtual ~File() { ...etc...; if( !persistant ) delete f; };
   ...etc...
};

Hoping you don't mind the excessive ...etc...'s, this little thing can be 
quite useful for when you already have an fstream (for example, in old code, 
or rather, old code which calls existing functions taking an fstream as a 
parameter, then when you want to change the function called, you can use your 
super-enhanced fstream wrapper without changing the old code: makes sense, 
no?)

Oh! Then there's this, which is a little secret weapon I have for when I'm 
supermad at construction in C++, but I started to type it in then realized it 
wasn't worth it. Hehehehehe...

- Calvin -