NeXTSTEP & c++
Z. Zhao
Although in NeXTSTEP 3.3 we have all c, c++, objective-c, ...
compilers, I believe only object-c is a generic part of NeXTSTEP,
I mean, if we want to take advantage of NeXTSTEP, we should do
programming in object-c. My question is:
If we use c++ to build some classes and objects, can we use them in
NeXTSTEP?
Although some people talk about language independent objects, i.e.,
objects built by using smalltalk, c++, objective-c or other OO
language can be used in any OO programming environment, I believe this
is not reality.
Am I right? Can you explain more to me about this issue?
Garance A. Drosehn
> Although in NeXTSTEP 3.3 we have all c, c++, objective-c, ...
> compilers, I believe only object-c is a generic part of NeXTSTEP,
> I mean, if we want to take advantage of NeXTSTEP, we should do
> programming in object-c. My question is:
>
> If we use c++ to build some classes and objects, can we use them
> in NeXTSTEP?
Depends how you want to use them. The interface builder knows
about Objective-C, so if you want to use C++ objects there then
you'd have to have some little objective-C stub to sit between
interface builder and your C++ objects.
The same tactic can be used for objects written in some other
languages.
> Although some people talk about language independent objects,
> i.e., objects built by using smalltalk, c++, objective-c or other
> OO language can be used in any OO programming environment, I
> believe this is not reality.
There are also versions of Eiffel for NeXTSTEP, and that includes
some degree of interface builder support too. I just got the Tower
version of Eiffel (Tower is the company name), and but I have not
had time to work with it yet. (note that by "just got it", I mean
I got the registration key last night, so I really haven't had any
time to work with it). It sounds like it could be very interesting.
Again, the Interface Builder must be seeing some objective-C stub
to get at the Eiffel objects, but if that's trivial to generate
then it might work out pretty well.
Your basic question also interests me. I'd really like to see us
get to the point that the programmer can connect objects somewhat
blindly, in that he or she doesn't need to worry about languages
the objects are written in.
There would be some sort of restrictions required of such objects,
so that maybe one can't take advantage of every-last-feature in a
particularly OO language if it's going to work smoothly with
objects written in other languages, but I'd like to think it could
be doable and the result be pretty decent.
I know you can also get Modula-3 for NeXTSTEP, but that doesn't
include any stab at InterfaceBuilder support. Does anyone know
of any other languages which are trying to fit into the interface
builder? How well does that work? How well *can* it work?
How would "COWS" fit into all this? (that was something that Sean
Luke was working on, if I remember right).
--
Garance Alistair Drosehn = g...@eclipse.its.rpi.edu
ITS Systems Programmer (handles NeXT-type mail)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Troy NY USA