Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!tada
From: tada@athena.mit.edu (Michael Zehr)
Newsgroups: comp.sw.components
Subject: using components
Message-ID: <11401@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 13 May 89 19:31:29 GMT
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: tada@athena.mit.edu (Michael Zehr)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 20


There have been a couple of good comments about using software
components, but so far most of them have been along the lines of
"such-and-such a language does this."  Could you describe
*how* the language provides both efficiency and quick building time?  

For example, one person mentioned Ada's "re-binding" of
executables.  What does this do?  

Someone also mentioned being able to reuse components in different
languages.  I agree that this is crucial in combining efficiency with
productivity.  So far, my experience with mixed-language coding is
that it is very easy on Vaxes (becuase of the forced procedure
interface of the CALLS instruction) but extremely difficult on IBM
mainframes (because there is no standard calling sequence).  Does
anyone have any experience in mixed-language coding on newer RISC
machines?  Do compiler witers stick to "standardized" calling
mechanisms?

-michael j zehr