Xref: utzoo comp.object:1678 comp.lang.c++:9262
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!uunet!hsi!stpstn!cox
From: cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox)
Newsgroups: comp.object,comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: What is Objective C?
Keywords: C++, Objective C
Message-ID: <5496@stpstn.UUCP>
Date: 27 Aug 90 14:15:40 GMT
References: <3864@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <4998@pegasus.ATT.COM> <11233@alice.UUCP>
Reply-To: cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox)
Organization: Stepstone
Lines: 26

In article <11233@alice.UUCP> ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) writes:
}Cfront is a compiler that works roughly like this:
}
}	1. Read and parse a C++ program into an internal representation.
}
}	2. Walk through the internal representation translating the
}	   parts of C++ that aren't in C into the corresponding C code.
}
}	3. Print out C source code corresponding to the internal representation.
}
}Now, (3) is a very small part of cfront -- somewhere around 5 percent
}of the total code.  The reason it's there, of course, is that it wouldn't
}be very useful if all you got was internal representation!

This should be so obvious that I needn't point out that the Objective-C 
*compiler* does the same things, in precisely the same fashion, for exactly
the same reasons. 

The Objective-C *interpreter* does not, again for reasons that should 
be obvious.  The downside of the difference is why the interpreter is 
presently available only for an old version of the language, and not 
on the newest machines.
-- 

Brad Cox; cox@stepstone.com; CI$ 71230,647; 203 426 1875
The Stepstone Corporation; 75 Glen Road; Sandy Hook CT 06482