MX2- keyword 'friend'

[degacParticipant]

I’m looking at the TED2 source code and I find the ‘keyword’  FRIEND.

For what is/should be used???

Just pure curiosity!

[impixiParticipant]

Though recognized by the MX2 lexer, “Friend” is an unimplemented keyword. Mark has probably reserved it for possible future inclusion in MX2.

Assuming “Friend” will allow functionality similar to the C++ equivalent, it can be useful.

Wikipedia link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friend_class

Also read the first “answer” in this stackoverflow thread:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17434/when-should-you-use-friend-in-c

EDIT: The best example I’ve seen that makes use of “Friend” classes (in C++) is in the object pooling chapter of Game Programming Patterns by Robert Nystrom. BTW, I highly recommend that book.

The same chapter he also demonstrates good use of Unions (something else not (yet?) in MX2), but I digress…

[degacParticipant]

Thanks,

So – if ever implemented & like the C language – is a way to allow another class to access the ‘private/protected’ part of another one: it’s a sort of ‘authorization’.

Considering the stackoverflow’s example, If you write a ‘base’ class and don’t specify what are ‘your’ friends immediately, you need – in future – to change the base every time you would like to access the protected things.

With this logic, make everything private, and add – then- only the sub-classes authorized.

In a ‘public’ project (where different heads have different visions) this approach is very limiting.
Honestly, I don’t like very much the ‘private’ thing at all (or the need to make a method Overridden in the main class!), this feature is just another complication in code design to me!

Thanks anyway!

[Author]

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