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From: hansen@pegasus.ATT.COM (Tony L. Hansen)
Newsgroups: comp.object,comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: What is Objective C?
Summary: comparison of Objective C and C++
Keywords: C++, Objective C
Message-ID: <4998@pegasus.ATT.COM>
Date: 25 Aug 90 02:06:59 GMT
References: <3864@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <1990Aug23.151011.12954@chinet.chi.il.us>
Reply-To: hansen@pegasus.ATT.COM (Tony L. Hansen)
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs NJ USA
Lines: 59

< I believe that Objective C is an actual Object Oriented C compiler whereas
< C++ is a pre-processor.  This basically means that C++ code is translated
< into C code which is then compiled into a final form.  Some would argue
< that this makes it somewhat a kludge and they don't want to use it.
< Objective C is sometimes thought of as a more "pure" object oriented
< solution to C.

For Pete's sake! Get your facts straight.

Objective C is an object oriented	C++ is an object oriented language
language and essentially a		and essentially a superset of C.
superset of C.

Compilers for Objective C are		Compilers for C++ are available
provided by Stepstone, Inc. They	from several sources, such as
produce object code directly and	AT&T's cfront translator, Oregon
may possibly even produce C code,	Software, Zortech and Borland.
for all I know.				Those compilers based on cfront
					produce C as an intermediate
					assembly language, which is then
					further compiled into object code.
					Those compilers provided by the
					other companies produce object
					code directly. All of these
					compilers, even cfront, are full
					compilers; they just use different
					forms of assembly language as
					their outputs.

Some people think that the syntax	The syntax of C++'s objects look
of Objective C's objects look more	more like C's structures. Message
similar to Smalltalk objects.		passing may or may not be
Message passing is almost always	polymorphic.
polymorphic.

Objective C has a number of class	C++ has a number of class
libraries available from		libraries available from a variety
Stepstone.				of sources.

If you define an "object oriented solution to C" as "most like Smalltalk",
then Objective C undoubtedly wins the appellation. Most people I know do NOT
use such a definition.

The C, C++ and Objective C preprocessor is that part of the compilation
system which deals with #include statements and their kin.

< These issues arose in a heated discussion with one of our R&D folk when I
< said C++ wasn't bad and he talked of the virtues of Objective C. (It's
< been a while since I've gone over all this so I may be wrong.)

I suggest that you and your R&D person learn a bit more about both
languages. I've leave the rest of the conclusion drawing to others. I'll
admit to being somewhat biased. :-)

					Tony Hansen
				att!pegasus!hansen, attmail!tony
				    hansen@pegasus.att.com

P.S. Where does the expression "For Pete's sake" come from?