Darren New wrote:
> Fredrik Eriksson wrote:
>> On Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:17:56 +0100, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>>>
>>> You always could do it in Smalltalk, just like you do in Ruby. One 
>>> advantage C# has is that you're not *actually* changing the string 
>>> class; it's just syntactic sugar. It's more like a C++ friend, except 
>>> with method/object syntax.
>>
>> It is nothing like 'friend' in C++.
> 
> Well, yes, there are a lot of differences. I suppose in thinking more 
> it's not really like "friend" at all, no. :-)

Thinking more, it's exactly the *opposite* of friend.

A friend function lets you take something with function-call syntax and give 
it access to the private bits of a class as if it were a member.

This thing in C# lets you take something with function-call semantics and 
make it look like a member function without giving it access to the private 
parts of the class.

But it *is* something that I've missed in lots of OO languages - the ability 
to "fix" the built-in classes or classes in libraries without having to 
subclass them and deal with getting the right classes instantiated.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Ouch ouch ouch!"
   "What's wrong? Noodles too hot?"
   "No, I have Chopstick Tunnel Syndrome."

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