In <3nnvoi$deq@frigate.doc.ic.ac.uk>, Nat Pryce <np2@doc.ic.ac.uk> writes:
>scherrey@proteus-tech.com wrote:
< deleted stuff> The whole point is we write code that compiles and
>> executes without any changes on multiple OS platforms. This really is a problem
>> that needs to be addressed as a C++ standards issue, IMHO.
>
>Surely this should be standardised by the hardware vendors, or at
>least by industry consortiums with an interest in C++ software on
>particular hardware platforms.
 < more stuff deleted>

 This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a hardware problem. It is
also not an operating system problem as even compilers running on the exact
same hardware/OS have different mechanism for name resolution. It is strictly
a language issue. The problem is that so far the standards committee has dropped
it off defining it as an implementation detail. While I do agree that it is an
implementation detail, it desperately needs a standard proposed implementation
that all vendors would support so code could work between compilers.

 later,

  Ben Scherrey
  Proteus Technologies, Inc.

scherrey@proteus-tech.com wrote:
>  Actually, SOM is implemented in C and uses C bindings. The Direct To SOM
> stuff is neat and works well but does impose a little bit of overhead. The
> overhead is ok usually but the biggest problem is the fact that SOM isn't a platform
> independent solution. The whole point is we write code that compiles and
> executes without any changes on multiple OS platforms. This really is a problem
> that needs to be addressed as a C++ standards issue, IMHO.

Surely this should be standardised by the hardware vendors, or at
least by industry consortiums with an interest in C++ software on
particular hardware platforms. For instance, I believe that Sun have
standardised how C++ objects should be organised on Sparc hardware.
I think this is the best way to go - the C++ standards committees
shouldn't worry about particular platforms; if they do they'll
never finish!

However, now that Microsoft have patented their way of implementing
multiple inheritance, I expect that C++ object formats will never
be standardised on DOS, Windows, Windows NT etc. But that's what you
get for using Microsoft products, I suppose...

Cheers,
 Nat.