Transitive const sucks

[James Dennett]

Walter Bright wrote:
> Janice Caron wrote:
>> It's a solution which doesn't scale.
>>
>> And there goes encapsulation...
> 
> At least for this example, the same issue exists when attempting to do
> "const-correctness" in C++.

No, it doesn't.  C++ doesn't hide the references from you
with its syntax, but the const Rectangle having a reference
to a Raster would *not* imply constness of that Raster in
C++.  (Indeed, this is a fairly common situation, whether
Raster is held by reference or some kind of pointer.)

> You cannot paste const on at the top level,
> it has to be put in at every level underneath it.

I'm not sure what you mean by that.  There's not much
context in which to interpret it.

-- James