Animorphic ST (Strongtalk) released!

Lex Spoon lex at cc.gatech.edu
Fri Jul 19 18:26:33 UTC 2002


Diego Gomez Deck <DiegoGomezDeck at ConsultAr.com> wrote:

> Some type of typed system lead us to some sort of multiple inheritance. The 
> types could be:
> 
> 1) ala C++: Multiple inheritance of implementation and protocol -> no comments.
> 2) ala Java / Objective C: Multiple inheritance of protocol.
> 2) ala StrongTalk: Multiple inheritance but based on mixins.
> 

We can find better starting points than these!  Here are the two main
ones to consider, IMHO:

	- SmallScript.  This is a recently-designed Smalltalk with optional
typing and is well worth looking at.  How much more relevant could you
get?

	- OCaml.  This is an OO language with required typing.  While the
required typing is a downer, the system is designed by people coming
from a functional languages background, and thus a lot of philosophical
issues are likely to have been considered and worked through.  For
example, I know that it tends to use interface types, and that the class
hierarchy and the type hierarchy are separate.


Also, Eiffel is certainly worth looking at, especially since piles of
code have been developed in it and so there is some practical
experience.


If we start with something like Java's or C++'s type system and grow
from there, then we will have years of catchup to do.

-Lex

PS -- I don't know about any of these systems first-hand.  They just
seem relevant.



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