Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ncar!gatech!udel!burdvax!ubbpc!wgh
From: wgh@ubbpc.UUCP (William G. Hutchison)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Smalltalk versus C++
Keywords: object-oriented languages
Message-ID: <447@ubbpc.UUCP>
Date: 3 Jan 89 17:53:05 GMT
Organization: UNISYS CS, Blue Bell, PA
Lines: 30


 I am currently learning C++ and I have read about Smalltalk, but have not
used it.  I have seen some disparaging remarks about C++ from some Smalltalk
gurus (or self-appointed experts) here.
 I was wondering what the real differences between the two languages are,
and whether they are important.

 From my reading, it appears that

(1) Smalltalk can create classes dynamically, whereas C++ does it at
    compile time;
(2) In Smalltalk "everything is an object" whereas C++ treats the traditional
    C data types differently from programmer-defined objects;
(3) Smalltalk has multiple inheritance, but C++ does not yet (shortly, I am
    informed);
(4) Smalltalk may be designed in a way such that it has built-in overhead, 
    and it may never be possible to make Smalltalk programs run as fast as
    C++ on present-day machine architectures (not sure about this, so I 
    thought I would ask).

To summarize, Smalltalk seems to have goodies that C++ lacks, but, since I
am new to object-oriented programming, I do not perceive the need for these
goodies.  Would some experienced Smalltalk programmers comment on how they
actually USE these non-C++ features?  Saying that these features are nifty
in the abstract is not the same as actually using them day-to-day.
-- 
Bill Hutchison, DP Consultant	rutgers!liberty!burdvax!ubbpc!wgh
Unisys UNIX Portation Center
P.O. Box 500, M.S. B121         "The unexamined life is not worth living!"
Blue Bell, PA 19424            	  -- Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ