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Issue C62104

Additive property of NULL fails silently
Submitted by: Brendan Barnwell     Appeared in: Compiler 6.21 or before     Fixed in: -
Problem

Normally, if there is an object Obj with a property prop such that Obj.prop==NULL, Obj.prop()==0. Also, if prop is an additive property and Obj inherits from Class1, Class2, and Class3 (in that order), calling Obj.prop() will result in an additional calls to Obj.Class1::prop() if the property routine provided by Obj returns false. If Obj.Class1::prop() returns false, Obj.Class2::prop() will be called, and Obj.Class3::prop() will be called if THAT returns false.

However, if an intermediate class in the hierarchy defines prop as NULL, the property routines of classes higher up the hierarchy will never be called. So, if Class2 defines prop as NULL, Obj.Class3::prop() will NOT be called when it should. However, the return value of the Obj.prop() call in this case is still 0.

The result is that any class which defines an additive property as NULL will break the code -- silently.

Solution

None submitted.

Update (by Cedric Knight)

It seems deliberate that the veneer works this way, and IMHO it shouldn't be changed, just better documented.


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