C+-

language (C More or Less) A subject-oriented language (SOL).

Each C+- class instance, known as a subject, holds hidden

members, known as prejudices, agendas or undeclared

preferences, which are impervious to outside messages; as well

as public members, known as boasts or claims.

The following C operators are overridden as shown:

@# better than

worse than

@# way better than

#@#@ forget it

! not on your life

== comparable, other things being equal

!== get a life, guy!

C+- is strongly typed, based on stereotyping and

self-righteous logic. The Boolean variables TRUE and

FALSE (known as constants in other, less realistic languages)

are supplemented with CREDIBLE and DUBIOUS, which are fuzzier

than Zadeh's traditional fuzzy categories. All Booleans can

be declared with the modifiers strong and weak. Weak

implication is said to "preserve deniability" and was added at

the request of the DoD to ensure compatibility with future

versions of Ada. Well-formed falsehoods (WFFs) are

assignment-compatible with all Booleans. What-if and

why-not interactions are aided by the special conditional

EVENIFNOT X THEN Y.

C+- supports information hiding and, among friend classes

only, rumor sharing. Borrowing from the Eiffel lexicon,

non-friend classes can be killed by arranging contracts. Note

that friendships are intransitive, volatile and

non-Abelian.

Operator precedence rules can be suspended with the

directive #pragma dwim, known as the "Do what I mean"

pragma.

ANSIfication will be firmly resisted. C+-'s slogan is "Be

Your Own Standard."

[Jargon File]

(1999-06-15)