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From: tower@WHEATIES.AI.MIT.EDU (Leonard H. Tower Jr.)
Newsgroups: gnu.g++
Subject: [nih-csl!keith: Re: Oasys on Sun, what is OOPS?]
Message-ID: <8902182031.AA23662@wheat-chex.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 18 Feb 89 20:31:20 GMT
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It appears from the following, that there will be no or little quality
documentation in the future ftp distributions of OOPS (aka NIH Class
Library).  And that a user only choice will be to buy a non-freed book
from John Wiley.

This is a loss:
    - there will be no quality on-line documentation for users.  
    - there will be no freely-redistributable documentation for users
to share and improve.
    - it will discourage people from using OOPS, because extra cost
and effort is needed to learn and use the library.  This particularly
hits individual users and those who have lengthy authorization
proceedures with a purchashing bureaucracy in order to buy a book.

I hope Keith Gorlen and NIH will reconsider their decision on this
point.  

thanx -len 

   Path: mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!batcomputer!rpi!leah!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!agate!ucbvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!nih-csl!keith
   From: nih-csl!keith (keith gorlen)
   Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
   Subject: Re: Oasys on Sun, what is OOPS?
   Summary: OOPS is a library of basic Smalltalk-80 -like classes.
   Date: 17 Feb 89 16:25:46 GMT
   Organization: NIH-CSL, Bethesda, MD

   In article <1410@umbio.MIAMI.EDU>, aem@ibiza.Miami.Edu (a.e.mossberg) writes:
   > I just installed Oasys C++ on our Sun 3/60, and on the distribution
   tape > was a subdirectory called "oops".  There's no information
   either in the > directories or the included manuals on what this is --
   so, could somebody > explain what OOPS is, and what I could expect to
   do with it. I gather that > its some sort of extensions to C++.

   ...

   Current Status:

   ...

   Because the OOPS reference manual is in such bad shape, we never made
   it available in machine-readable form.  This creates a problem now
   that several vendors such as OASYS, Oregon Software, and Austin Code
   Works are distributing OOPS without the paper documentation that we
   send to folks who request the software from us directly.

   But relief is on the way.  We've written a book (tentatively) titled
   "Data Abstraction and Object-Oriented Programming in C++" to be
   published by John Wiley later this year.  It describes OOPS (which
   we're now calling the NIH Class Library -- there's too many things
   called "OOPS" these days), its philosophy, and how to extend it.
   We're also preparing a new release of the library which the publisher
   plans to distribute for a small fee.  The software in this
   distribution will be public domain, except for a few files that are
   covered by the GNU "copyleft", and will also include the example
   programs described in the book.  We also hope to make the distribution
   available via anonymous FTP.

   The NIH Class Library will be somewhat different from OOPS, and will
   require an AT&T C++ R2.0 -compatible compiler (although it will
   probably not require support for MI).  In the process of writing the
   book, we discovered some embarassing quirks in the library which we
   either had to explain in public or fix, so we decided to fix them.

   Here's the planned table of contents for the book (subject to change,
   of course).  The reason I'm posting this is so that we're not deluged
   by requests for copies of the old OOPS Reference Manual.

   Data Abstraction and Object-Oriented Programming in C++ by Keith
   Gorlen, Sandy Orlow, and Perry Plexico

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