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From: kobryn@esosun.UUCP (Cris Kobryn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.modula2,comp.lang.prolog,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: C++ vs. Other OOLs
Message-ID: <461@esosun.UUCP>
Date: 24 Apr 89 20:55:11 GMT
References: <2602@ssc-vax.UUCP> <5947@pdn.paradyne.com> <1022@quintus.UUCP>
Organization: SAIC, San Diego
Lines: 34
In-reply-to: ok@quintus.UUCP's message of 19 Apr 89 08:44:08 GMT

In article <1022@quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:

   . . .
   >The ideal object-oriented language would:
   >1) Have user-definable classes.
   >Lisp and Prolog  
   >permit the programmer to define his own class mechanism.  There are versions 
   >that come with classes built in.

   >Smalltalk and Lisp are highly polymorphic.  Next is Objective-C and Prolog.
   >Then C++, and last is Modula-2.

   Look, will you _please_ take Prolog out of this discussion?
   Prolog is not an object-oriented language.  It makes no pretence of being
   an object-oriented language.  It goes out of its way NOT to be an object-
   oriented language.  

Consider C&M's intro sentence (Ch. 1) in "Programming in Prolog":

	   Prolog is a computer programming language that is used for solving
	problems that involve *objects* and the *relationships* between
 	objects....

   Being paid by a Prolog company, I naturally think that
   Prolog is super-wonderful (logic is God and Warren is its prophet), but
   anyone who buys a Prolog system in the expectation that s/he will find it
   possible to define objects in it is in for a big disappointment.

It is more than *possible* to define objects in Prolog.  Consider Quintus'
ProWINDOWS, an OOPS for UI devlopment:  it supports abstraction, inheritance, 
polymorphism and message-passing.  (If you need a technical POC at Quintus,
I'd be glad to oblige ;->)

-- Cris Kobryn