Abstract

C and C++ allow passing functions as ar guments to other functions in the form of function pointers. However, since function pointers can r efer only to existing functions declar ed at global or file scope, these function ar guments cannot capture local environments. This leads to the common misconception that C and C++ do not support function closur es. In fact, function closur es can be modeled dir ectly in C++ by enclosing a function inside an object such that the local envir onment is captured by data members of the object. This idiom is described in advanced C++ texts and is used, for example, to implement callbacks. The purpose of this paper is twofold: First, we demonstrate how this idiom can be generalized to a type-safe framework of C++ class templates for higher-order functions that support composition and partial application. Second, we explor e the expressiveness of the framework and compar e it with that of existing functional pr ogramming languages. W e illustrate by mean...

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