wasting development time (was)

[Andrew Bennetts]

On Tue, Feb 04, 2003 at 05:10:18AM +0000, Brandon Van Every wrote:
> Andrew Bennetts wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 04, 2003 at 02:10:59AM +0000, Brandon Van Every wrote:
> >> John Ochiltree wrote:
> >>> Andy Freeman wrote:
> >>>
> >>> ,snip>
> >>>> Van Every seems to think that C++ templates are a heavy duty tool.
> >>>> They're not.
> >>>
> >>> Thanks Andy. How for instance would BVE deal with a return type that
> >>> could not be foreseen.
> >>
> >> FORSEE it, dammit!  Geez, do you guys just sit around all day
> >> writing up code for abstract problems that are not sitting in front
> >> of you??!?  My development time is precious, I have to concentrate
> >> on what I need to get done!
> >
> > I think that's the point -- if you have a flexible language, you can
> > waste less time forseeing, and spend more time working.
> 
> The C++ way to deal with this is the virtual function.  If you cannot forsee
> at least that much of your design, then you are chasing shadows.  Maybe your
> particular problem domain requires that shadows be chased.  Mine don't.

A virtual function?  Where templates would have taken care of the problem
automatically?  (Or in the python world, s/templates/dynamic typing/)

Or am I misunderstanding what this thread is talking about?  It's hard to
know when everyone is talking in vague generalities ("a return type that
could not be foreseen")  :)

-Andrew.