Re: C++ namespace?

[John W. Eaton]

On 12-Feb-2008, Shai Ayal wrote:

| On Feb 12, 2008 12:23 PM, John W. Eaton <address@hidden> wrote:
| > A message was sent recently to the help list requesting that we put
| > the Octave classes/functions in a namespace.  Since the poster was not
| > subscribed to the list, the message was not posted automatically.
| > Also, since it was not really a request for help using Octave, I asked
| > that he repost his message here, but I haven't seen it.  In any case,
| > the suggestion has merit, so what do people think about introducing an
| > "octave" namespace around all the C++ functions in the Octave
| > libraries?
| 
| What are the implications for octave sources -- just add a using
| octave line to all .h files?

I think it might not be desirable to put a "using namespace octave"
directive in all the .h files.  Shouldn't it be up to the users of the
.h files to decide which symbols to import from a given namespace?  If
each of the Octave header files include a "using namespace octave"
line, aren't we forcing the symbols on the users of the .h files in
the same way as we do now without the namespace?  Or is there some way
for a user of the .h file to undo the using directive?

Although we tag functions from the C++ standard library with  "std::",
I was definitely not planning to tag all Octave functions with
"octave::", so I would expect that we would add "using namespace
octave" directives to the Octave .cc files.

jwe