Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!apple!shebanow
From: shebanow@Apple.COM (Andrew Shebanow)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Multiple Inheritance -- Is It A Luxury?
Message-ID: <9154@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 16 Jul 90 18:32:20 GMT
References: <15132@reed.UUCP> <268BA8DC.4CD4@intercon.com> <8937@goofy.Apple.COM> <268C032E.5137@intercon.com> <1990Jul2.181147.1672@efi.com> <9007@goofy.Apple.COM> <1990Jul13.182940.1099@efi.com>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 34

>What I find hard to believe is that anyone would seriously call the
>above "inflammatory".  There seems to be an attitude that any criticism
>of Apple technical policy is inherently inflammatory, even if its
>language is moderate and its arguments carefully drawn.  Is it really
>"inflammatory" to call an attitude "cavalier" and an argument
>"frivolous"?  If so, how would it be possible to make any criticism
>that was not "inflammatory"?

It isn't imflammatory to criticize Apple. There are plenty of people
on the nets who criticize Apple all the time, and nobody bats an eye.
Criticizing Apple for not supporting MI on handle based objects is
fine - but jumping to the conclusion that this is a "cavalier" attitude,
and then trumpeting that conclusion as fact is, IMHO, imflammatory. Your
use of loaded words like "cavalier" and "frivoulous" is also likely
to raise the hackles of the Apple engineers who don't like having
their design decisions, which are often the result of weeks or
months of work, characterized as such by someone who has little or
no idea of the issues involved.

>Perhaps we should subscribe to it.  Object Pascal has two major
>deficiencies.  One is the lack of multiple inheritance; the other is
>the lack of information hiding (private methods and members).  Is the
>ATG also looking at adding information hiding?

Yes, ATG is looking at those issues as well. The basic goal is to
make Object Pascal support an equivalent set of OOP features as C++,
while preserving the spirit of Object Pascal.

I would recommend Frameworks to anyone who is interested in
OOP on the Mac.

Have fun,

Andrew Shebanow