Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a347
From: John_Miller@mindlink.UUCP (John Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: MPW Object Pascal, linkers and general hassles...(help)
Message-ID: <5290@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 26 Mar 91 16:36:15 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 49

In article <49295@apple.Apple.COM>, keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin)
writes
>In article <1991Feb16.161729.4483@actrix.gen.nz>
> Bruce.Hoult@bbs.actrix.gen.nz writes:
>>It's simple: you can't use Object Pascal stuff in XCMDs.  Sorry.
>>
>>
>>I suppose if one were *really* clever, you might be able to get
>>the %methtable and so forth linked into your XCMD.  It would
>> probably be tricky though, because all Object Pascal methods
>> normally go through the CODE 0 jump table. (and probably for
>>  other reasons as well)
>
>There's a company in Seattle that figured out how to do this.
>They're called Software Architects, and use Object Pascal for
>the SCSI drivers they write. They use the method you describe
>in a post-Link phase. I don't know if their tools are/will be
>commercially or otherwise available. If you have AppleLink, you
>might want to contact them.

I have also found that it is fairly straightforward (although
CFront-version dependent) to post-process the CFront output to
translate the virtual tables into a form that can be included
in stand-alone code resources without requiring an A5 world.

My question is:  why doesn't Apple do this for us?  Over the
years, Apple increasingly has been pushing object-oriented
programming (oops, just plain "object programming", thank you).
At the same time -- or, really, as part of this push -- the
importance of stand-alone code is increasing:  XCMDs,
communications tools, query documents, the millions of
print drivers that will be written for the future print
architecture, and all the various third party add-ins.  In
many cases, the functionality supported by these code resources
is getting more complex.  It would be nice to have Apple-supported
ways of using OOP languages to help deal with this complexity.

The changes to C++ -- or, offhand, to Object Pascal -- required to
support code resources would be relatively minor.  It would
help us reach a higher level of grooviness.

_____________________________________________________________________
John Miller                        (604) 433-1795
Symplex Systems                    AppleLink (rarely)  CDA0461
Burnaby, British Columbia          Fax: (604) 430-8516
Canada                             usenet:  john_miller@mindlink.uucp

Macintosh Consulting and Software Development
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