- From: Henrik Frystyk Nielsen <frystyk@w3.org>
- Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 13:30:26 -0500
- To: acs@aracnet.com
- Cc: www-lib@w3.org
acs@aracnet.com writes: > In a structured stream class, > what does the structure member "*isa" stand for ? > > as in: > struct _HTStructured { > CONST HTStructuredClass * isa; > .... > } > The isa element is the _only_ required part of a stream interface that a stream has to provide. It is of type HTStreamClass which is defined in HTStream.html. The isa element is an attempt to hide the fact that you can't subclass as in C++, for example. If no take a look at any of the stream implementations - or any function using a stream - it use the methods pointed by the isa element. It is a question whether the extra indirection going through the isa element causes performance problems but the tests that I have performed using alpha's profiler doesn't give this impression. Henrik PS: I don't think this mail made it - we had some mail problems yesterday but it should be fixed by now. Sorry if you have already seen it.
Received on Wednesday, 6 March 1996 13:30:34 UTC