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From: keith@nih-csl.UUCP (keith gorlen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc,comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: C++ vs Objective-C
Message-ID: <273@nih-csl.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 26-Sep-87 12:49:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: nih-csl.273
Posted: Sat Sep 26 12:49:21 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 29-Sep-87 07:24:28 EDT
References: <3405@ece-csc.UUCP> <638@its63b.ed.ac.uk> <1811@watcgl.waterloo.edu> <1414@pdn.UUCP>
Organization: NIH-CSL, Bethesda, MD
Lines: 34
Summary: Bad programs can be written in any language
Xref: mnetor comp.lang.misc:694 comp.lang.c++:465

In article <1414@pdn.UUCP>, ken@pdn.UUCP (Ken Auer) writes:

>Both C++ and Objective-C basically add object-oriented features to a
>procedure oriented language.

Yes, and C++ goes further by fixing some things that are bad about C
(by adding stronger type checking, call-by-reference, inline
functions, constant types), and has better support for data
abstraction (operator and function overloading, guaranteed
initialization/finalization) -- features valuable to those that have
need for programming paradigms other than O-OP.  Objective-C doesn't
do much for someone who needs complex numbers or matrices, for
example.  C++ does.

>Both allow the two approaches to be intermixed.

But C++ with its programmer-defined implicit type conversion does a
better job, as I demonstrated in the String example.

>Objective-C allows the user to see the difference, while C++ forces
>the user to figure it out.

I would say that Objective-C forces the user to see the difference,
while C++ has features that permit a competent programmer to hide the
difference from users of his/her software.  A bad C++ programmer can
do some awful things, but that is true of most other programming
languages, including C.  That hasn't preventing C from becoming a
highly successful language.

-- 
	Keith Gorlen			phone: (301) 496-5363
	Building 12A, Room 2017		uucp: uunet!mimsy!elsie!nih-csl!keith
	National Institutes of Health
	Bethesda, MD 20892