Meaning of pure member function

[H. S. Teoh]

The following code compiles without error:

	class C {
		int x;

		// what does 'pure void' mean??
		pure void f() {
			x++;		// why is this legal?
		}
	}

What does 'pure' mean when applied to a member function? Based on
Andrei's book, 'pure' means that the function's result depends only on
its input. And based on the fact this code compiles, I deduced that
'this' is included as part of the function's input.

However, the function is clearly changing one of its inputs (changing a
member of 'this'). Furthermore, what on earth is 'pure void' supposed to
mean and why does the compiler accept it?

Changing the function to read:

	pure int f() { return x++; }

also compiles without any complaint from the compiler. Yet calling
writeln() from within f() produces an error. Why?


T

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