#PD Compiler?
3 messages in this thread
Martin, I've been fooling around with C++. You are right, it requires
somewhat different approach to thinking about programs. With C++ its not
that bad, since C++ is close enough to conventional languages. Actually,
C++ has some things in it I wish Modula-2 had. They don't seem that
difficult to implement. I think that OOLs will be more important in the
future. In fact Wirth's new language (it's called OBERON) incorporates some
object-oriented ideas. This shift to OOLs, is kind of like going to
structured-programming from flow charts. I mean, people who program in
PASCAL/M2/C don't draw flow charts anymore do they?
Oberon has very little more than M2, and I like that. The type extension
proposed by Wirth should not be *that* difficult to implement in M2. I am a
little worried about the garbage collection though (I'll have to read up on
techniques to allow the compiler to do most of that at compile-time). It
seems there's a portable Oberon compiler scheduled to be out in a few
months. If so, look for an Amiga version in the future. I'm also interested
in the extensions proposed to M2 by the ISO commitee working on it (array
and records constants for example). I've also been looking at OO M2
(Objective M2 ?)
From what I read about OBERON, I think that type extension can be really
all handled at compile time, I don't see a need for garbage collection. I
know that Wirth has someone working on a portable OBERON compiler, but none
is available yet.
There have been a couple extension to M2. There is Modula2+ at DEC
somewhere, and Modula-3, and someone in Europe has a product that combines
Modula-2 and Prolog! The things are I'd like to see in M2 is termination
sections for modules (just like in OBERON), mutli-dimensional open arrays.
Structured constants can be useful, but they get in a way of re-entrancy.