Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!uunet!pdn!tscs!tct!chip From: chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++ Subject: Re: Static typing, OOP efficiency, and programmer error Message-ID: <27EA4653.EC4@tct.uucp> Date: 22 Mar 91 18:00:50 GMT References: <47199@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <27E17FD1.7241@tct.uucp> <48311@nigel.ee.udel.edu> Organization: Teltronics/TCT, Sarasota, FL Lines: 22 According to carroll@cis.udel.edu (Mark Carroll): >You're not listening to what I said: "Most of the time, Objective-C is used >in a way which could be trivially translated... IN THOSE CASES, Obj-C COULD >catch any of the errors." Actually, I am listening (or reading, as the case may be). Meanwhile, I think that my basic point has been lost: Objective-C the language does NOT allow the compiler to catch those errors, unless "catch" is defined as: "Output a warning that might well be spurious." To make "no such message" a fatal error would break the language, because the language allows class extension without recompilation of clients. Or am I all wet here? >... a good compiler, by using dataflow, could gather the same information >that the C++ compiler has ... Dataflow analysis of that caliber is impossible. A complete knowledge of all object types would require solving the halting problem. -- Chip Salzenberg at Teltronics/TCT , "All this is conjecture of course, since I *only* post in the nude. Nothing comes between me and my t.b. Nothing." -- Bill Coderre