To: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
From: A DOT APPLEYARD AT fs1 DOT mt DOT umist DOT ac DOT uk
Date: 4 Jun 93 16:33:22 GMT
Subject: comp.lang.c++ or equivalent thereof

   Last year I submitted some suggestions as to possible improvements to the C
or C++ language, and was told to send it to comp.lang.c++@prep.mit.ai.edu,
which I did, and the message was not bounced, but also I never got a reply.
Recently I again tried sending a message to comp.lang.c++@prep.mit.ai.edu, and
the message was bounced as if there was no such email address. Please who do I
send such a message to now? If it is an email circular like this email
circular or Virus-L, please how do I get on its circulation list?

  For information, the ideas in that message are:-
  Since '@' and '`' are still unused in C and C++:-
  (1) '`' as to-power-of (since in C 'x^y' means "x nonequivalence y" and
'x**y' means "x times quantity at address y"), at least with integer exponent,
as e.g. "sin(x) squared" if written as 'sin(x)`2' with an explicit power
operator can be easily optimized to "call sin, then multiply result register
by itself", but 'pow(sin(x),2)' inevitably compiles into a call of sin and
then a call of pow. This time saved can accumulate over long program runs.
  (2) If mytype is a type, and X is an array-of-mytype or pointer-to-mytype,
and K is an integer, 'K AT X' means "X[1] to X[K-1] inclusive", and e.g. 'Y=K AT X'
copies the (K*sizeof(mytype)) bytes starting at address X, whereas 'Z=X'
copies only the address value X. This allows one call of '=' to copy a whole
array, as one call of '=' can copy a whole struct value now. If X is an array
rather than a pointer, monadic '@X' means "the whole of the array X". 'K AT X'
and monadic '@X' could be allowed to be used also as lvalues.