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From: chased@rbbb.Eng.Sun.COM (David Chase)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula3
Subject: Re: language change wishes / Olivetti Modula-3 info needed
Message-ID: <6850@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 29 Jan 91 19:12:16 GMT
References: <9101291633.AA07621@decpa.pa.dec.com>
Sender: news@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Lines: 42

I403%DMAFHT1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Marc Wachowitz) writes:
>2) UNTRACED types
>It would be useful to allow the following, which is syntactically
>illegal:
>
>TYPE ObjectType = OBJECT (* ... *) END;
>     UntracedObjectType = UNTRACED ObjectType;
>
>(The desired meaning should be obvious.)

It's sort of obvious.  Presumably, you would be rewriting all of the
code (e.g., procedures bound to methods) referenced by this shorthand
declaration?  The old code almost certainly would not be correct
because...

It's unlikely that the old (traced) code would contain the bookkeeping
necessary to manually maintain the storage.  In my experience,
interfaces in a garbage-collected world look "sloppy" to people not
accustomed to working with a garbage collector (because the interfaces
don't contain the extra gunk needed to manage resources between
modules and users of the module).  It is painful to rewrite code for
untraced use, but if you really take advantage of the garbage
collector in the traced world, then a port to the untraced world won't
be trivial (and if you don't take advantage of the garbage collector,
you're throwing away a useful tool).

>3) Information on the Olivetti implementation
>I would like to get information about the Olivetti implementation of
>Modula-3: legal status, availability, required hard-/software, form of
>compilation (e.g. Modula-3 to C like the DEC implementation ?) etc.

Mick Jordan has the latest word on the legal status.  I think it could
become available if someone thought it was worth their time.  It
requires a C compiler, and has been ported to a number of 32-bit
machines.  The compiler generates (very ugly looking) C.  The
back-end, which generates that C, is no longer supported, unless
someone else wishes to take on the job.  It should be cleaned up and
rewritten in Modula-3; the current code shows signs of haste, porting,
and multiple language changes.  I should know; I wrote it.

David Chase
Sun