Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!cheddar!dcmartin
From: dcmartin@cheddar.cs.wisc.edu (David C. Martin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: C++, Objectivce-C and projects..
Message-ID: <6639@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
Date: 11 Nov 88 01:42:35 GMT
References: <5155@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Sender: news@spool.cs.wisc.edu
Reply-To: dcmartin@cheddar.cs.wisc.edu (David C. Martin)
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 39

In article <5155@thorin.cs.unc.edu> (Dr. James Coggins) writes:

>Now for the leap...
>
>4. The Smalltalk-like languages will be the better tools for large
>software development because item #1 above will kick in to make the
>project more manageable. 
>
>Opinions?

I have been reading this newgroup for sometime and with this posting
finally saw something with which I agreed.

To make things clear, I am an experienced C, LISP and CLOS programmer and
am now attempting to master C++.  One of the things which I first noted
about C++ was that it was not a true OO language like CLOS since it did not
have a class lattice or the ability to have objects change w/ the changes in
the definitions of their superclasses.  This latter lack can be attributed
to the lack of a run-time system supporting such modifications.  In essence,
C++ appears to be an ADT language w/ some support for OO-like inheritence,
but that is about it.

As for managing projects, I can't really say whether any non-interactive,
non-dynamic system could *ever* compete w/ something like SmallTalk or CLOS.
There are several features of OO languages which C++ does not provide 
(e.g. metaclasses) which are incredibly important for doing things like
building architecture dependent types (e.g. Casey Leedom's Connection Machine
integers).  In addition, there is currently no way to build things like
browsers w/o writing code to support the currently internal definitions in
an external format (e.g. attributes = attributes(classof(object))).

However, I *like* C++ for building ADTs!  Perhaps, someday, I will even
use C++ to build a real OOPS.

dcm
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David C. Martin                            arpa: dcmartin@cs.wisc.edu
University of Wisconsin - Madison          uucp: ..!ucbvax!dcmartin
Computer Sciences Department               at&t: 608/262-6624 (O)