Re: Simple example on interfaces

[Shark8 <onewingedshark@gmail.com>]

On Tuesday, January 26, 2021 at 8:36:56 PM UTC-7, Randy Brukardt wrote:
> 
> Ultimately, I think one should only use interfaces IFF there is a clear 
> reuse case where the substantial cost of dispatching is not a concern. For 
> me, that is approximately never, but of course your mileage may vary. 

It makes sense to use them in the internals of the compiler. Perhaps not a single-language compiler, but certainly a multilanguage one like GCC. An argument could be made for a single-language compiler in an environment like described in the DIANA reference-manual's rationale, where the DIANA-structure was meant to be passed around to things like pretty-printers and static-analyzers and code-generators.

You could make an argument that it would be useful for code-generators, too.
I was contemplating using something like a hybrid of IEEE694 and 3AC last year... but that's a bit of a tangent.

https://standards.ieee.org/standard/694-1985.html
3AC = Three Address Code