From: marc@ecrc.de (Marc Bourgois)
Subject:   comparing object-oriented platforms
Reply-To: marc@ecrc.de
Organization: European Computer industry Research Centre GmbH.
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 10:26:32 GMT


I think it is important to direct the attention of this newsgroup to the discussion 
about "comparing object-oriented platforms" which is going on in comp.object.  
The main point is that though modula3 gets mentioned, and occasionally defended, 
it is wiped away by the zealous interventions of Eiffel and C/C++ people.  

The main problem seems to be the "limited interest" in modula3; maybe we should start 
the "modula3 1000" list of applications/users as the prolog people are doing to make 
the system more widespread, to demostrate its momentum...

Anyway here is a resume of the relevant interventions, I myself posted a pointer to 
this group, and especially to the "Modula-3 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)" message.
Moreover I emphasized modula3's rich library structure (trestle), the provisions for 
concurrency (threads, reentrant libs; appears toi be a weak issue in Eiffel) and the 
expected gnu implementation.

Original query:

In article 29066@news.service.uci.edu, mwu@orion.oac.uci.edu (Matt Wu) writes:
>
>I'm currently evaluating several object-oriented development platforms
>and I was wondering if any of you would like to share your opinions on
>platforms that you prefer or know about.  It'd be especially useful to hear
>comparisons between different platforms (for instance, Eiffel v. Smalltalk).
>

A response that triggered most of the remaining discussion:

In article nagle@netcom.com, nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) writes:

>      The language situation is roughly as follows:
>
>	Ada		Big, no inheritance, some tools expensive but do
>			exist.  Many books on language available.  Many
>			free libraries available.  DoD standard.
>	C++		Big, multiple versions of language, unsafe.
>			Tools widely available.  Many books available.
>			Most popular choice.
>	Modula-2	No classes or inheritance.  Many books.
>			Many implementations.  Solid, but limited.
>	Modula-3	Limited interest - one free compiler, one book.
>			Adds classes to Modula-2.  Less used than
>			Modula-2.  
>	Eiffel		Limited interest - one or two compilers, one book.
>			Less used than Smalltalk, C++, Ada, or Modula-2.
>	Smalltalk	Slow execution, good tools.  Multiple books
>			available.  Clean language.  Good for experimental
>			work.  Avoid pure-interpreted versions if speed
>			at all important.

Then most centered on the "enormous benefits" of using Eiffel, and some discussion 
on the C++ approach.  Luckily we got the following intervention (the author is rather
active in this group too):

In article 92Sep28090446@pollux.vlsi.polymtl.ca, dagenais@vlsi.polymtl.ca (Michel 
Dagenais) writes:

>I dont want to start a language war here (it already started, a dozen
>replies already came out on John Nagle's post), but the extensive libraries
>available ( X graphical user interface, read/write for objects) for free
>with DEC SRC Modula 3 should be mentioned. Moreover it has garbage
>collection AND preemptive multi-threading (all the libraries are thread
>safe), which none of the others mentioned (C++, Eiffel, SmallTalk...) have.
>Threads are quite useful for user interaction and client-server
>applications.

Then part of the discussion centered on garbage collection, its performance (for
real-time systems,...) no modula3 info was given here, and I don't feel confident
to do so ...

Finally someone got interested in modula3:

In article <1992Sep29.043418.16848@actrix.gen.nz> Des.Kenny@bbs.actrix.gen.nz writes:

>Does Modula-3 have inheritance/multiple inheritance?

and got a reply:

In article 48043@neat.cs.toronto.edu, tlai@cs.toronto.edu (Tony Wen Hsun Lai) writes:

>Um, I think Modula-3 has (single) inheritance, polymorphism, and dynamic
>binding.  Traced types are automatically garbage collected, and untraced
>types must be allocated and deallocated by the programmer.
---
Marc Bourgois
European Computer-Industry Research Centre      Tel. + (49) 89-92699-179
Arabellastr 17, 8000 Muenchen 81. Germany.
Internet: marc@ecrc.de
UUCP: ..unido!ecrc!marc