This is a fairly common pattern but it suffers from a big problem in that the compiler usually can't check your parameters for correctness. If you build a stru

This is a fairly common pattern but it suffers from a big problem in that the compiler usually can't check your parameters for correctness. If you build a struct with the parameters but accidentally misname one that error is hard to catch. My ideal language would have function prototypes that look something like: return_type function_name(parameter_name type (default_value) [constraints], ...) If the default value is not set then the parameter must be passed or it is a compile error.