> I get the distinct feeling that no matter how I respond to what you say, you'll find some way to extend the argument. Well, yes. Sorry. > The difference you

> I get the distinct feeling that no matter how I respond to what you say, you'll find some way to extend the argument. Well, yes. Sorry. > The difference you note in line counts for implementing a singly linked list is not because of any real difference in capability of the language to support parametric polymorphism[…] Hey, I said that much! > since virtual methods and inheritance-based subtyping is something ML doesn't support at all you cannot fault C++ for its less-than-optimal support for those features in comparison to ML Fair enough. I'll revise my stance. > "First class" is a well defined term in programming language design and implementation. Not in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:First-class_function http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:First-class_function Could you point me to an authoritative source which would clarify the issue?