In article <C6oqHB.Fvy@cbnewse.cb.att.com>, grumpy@cbnewse.cb.att.com (Paul J Lucas) writes:
> From article <1s8suj$kfb@network.ucsd.edu>, by joe@crl.ucsd.edu (Joe):
>>>Why are keyword function parameters not a part of C++
>>
>>>  void func(int a=0, int b=0, int c=0);
>>>  could be called as:
>>>  func(c: 5, a: 3);
>>
 (OTHER STUFF)
>       Which is worse: remembering the argument order or remembering
>       the keywords?  The keywords should be optional; if they are,
>       then in places where they're not used to call a function, you're
>       back to remembering the argument order.
>
>       Upshot: keyword arguments, in practice, are no help.

The big advantage comes when calling a function which takes a lot of
parameters which have default values.  If you only want to override
one or two of them, then (at present) you have to re-specify the default
values for any which precede the ones which must be changed.  With keyword
parameters, you need only specify the ones of interest.

>       Also, it's just not worth the extra baggage of making C++ even
>       bigger and complicating things for the (negligable) benefit.

Maybe.  But they would be of more than negligable benefit.

John Aldridge