Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!bbn!gatech!dcatla!itwaf
From: itwaf@dcatla.UUCP (Bill Fulton [Sys Admin])
Newsgroups: comp.object
Subject: Re: "Messaging" (Re: Reentrant code)
Message-ID: <26000@dcatla.UUCP>
Date: 28 Oct 89 22:07:47 GMT
References: <132000003@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> <2375@cbnewsl.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: dcatla!itwaf@gatech.edu (Bill Fulton [Sys Admin])
Organization: DCA Inc., Alpharetta, GA
Lines: 34

In article <2375@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> dog@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (edward.n.schiebel) writes
>From article <132000003@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>, by jpd00964@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu:
>>[...]
>> Now, are you saying that you can do run time binding with C++?
>> 
>Yes.  that is what virtual functions are all about.
>
>	Ed Schiebel
>	AT&T Bell Labs

To amplify; c++ allows the programmer to *control* binding points (compile time
or runtime; per object function). So the programmer, rather than the language,
can make the tradeoff decision between efficiency and abstraction.
What a concept!   :-)

I understand that this is a "religious" issue; but I think it is nice that,
for this particular language at least, the basic OOP concepts are supported
while still retaining efficiency. Efficiency is not a dirty word. However,
I'd happily admit that a "hybrid" implementation has serious limitations.

I was in on the beginning of this thread, but missed the rest up until now.
At the risk of redundancy: One of the nice things about the c++ imp of OOP is
that, being "built on top of c", the objects are always passed on the stack.
Thus, functions are inherently re-entrant, at least as far as the passed object
instances go.

I'm not saying c++ is better or worse than other languages, just that this is
one interesting, and very important, side-effect of one particular
implementation. I suggest that re-entrant capability is very important; and it
would seem to be a shame if a language were to take away re-entrancy in order
to add OOP. (But then; that's what this whole thread has been discussing, and
I missed the middle part, so I'll shut up now).

Bill Fulton