Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!mimsy!cvl!elsie!nih-csl!keith
From: keith@nih-csl.UUCP (keith gorlen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Generic Object Oriented Libraries
Message-ID: <299@nih-csl.UUCP>
Date: 22 Jan 88 23:11:46 GMT
References: <455@anuck.UUCP>
Organization: NIH-CSL, Bethesda, MD
Lines: 39
Keywords: generic types class derived
Summary: New release of OOPS in preparation for USENIX C++ tape.
	 Documentation still incomplete and inaccurate

In article <455@anuck.UUCP>, jrl@anuck.UUCP (j.r.lupien) writes:
> Hello,
>    Does anyone out there know the status of the OOPS
> library with respect to the "production release"?
> 

My OOPS class library is still "guru-only" status.  The code is solid,
we're using it here in two large packages, and every so often I hear
from others who are using it.  It is "guru-only" because of the
documentation.  I never did get around to documenting many of the
classes, and what documentation there is hasn't been kept up to date
as OOPS has evolved, so the only way to really understand what's there
is to read the header files and test programs.

I have a new release in preparation for submission to the USENIX C++
tape that Peter Salus is assembling.  In addition to some minor
changes there are 4 new classes: Iterator, String, Regex, and Range.
Iterator is a cleaner mechanism for iterating over Collections.  The
String package is a much more efficient version of the original OOPS
String class, and has more functional SubString operations.  Regex is
a class built around the GNU Emacs regular expression pattern matcher,
and instances of Range represent integer ranges used in conjunction
with the String and Regex classes.  I also did some decent
documentation for the new classes.

A paper describing OOPS was published recently: "An Object-Oriented
Class Library for C++ Programs", Software -- Practice and Experience,
Vol. 17(12), 899-922 December 1987.

We are working on a book on OOPS, hopefully to be published late this
year.

I also plan to experiment with supporting multiple inheritance in OOPS
when it is available in C++.
-- 
	Keith Gorlen			phone: (301) 496-5363
	Building 12A, Room 2017		uucp: uunet!ncifcrf.gov!nih-csl!keith
	National Institutes of Health	Internet: keith%nih-csl@ncifcrf.gov
	Bethesda, MD 20892