Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!sdrvx2.sinet.slb.com!saito From: saito@sdrvx2.sinet.slb.com (Naoki Saito (GEO-002) Ext. 5471) Newsgroups: gnu.g++ Subject: Friend or public member? Message-ID: <8909271436.AA14881@ascsu1.SLCS.SLB.COM> Date: 27 Sep 89 14:36:14 GMT Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Distribution: gnu Organization: GNUs Not Usenet Lines: 19 Hello, folks! I sometimes wonder whether I should use friend function or public member to implement some function. Suppose I defined a vector class. If I want to retrieve the size or dimension of the declared vector, which one should I use? The following segments explains the situation: vector a(100); int naf = dim(a); // friend function version. int nap = a.dim(); // public member function version. This is only the matter of the implementor's taste? Should I implement both ways? If there's any reason to prefer one of them to the other, please let me know. Thanks in advance, Naoki Saito (saito@sdr.slb.com) Schlumberger-Doll Research