[net.lang] Info on c/flavors

keith@cecil.UUCP (keith gorlen) (04/02/85)

Here is the reply I received to my request for information
on c/flavors:

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Date: Thu, 28 Mar 85  9:45:23 EST
From: Bernie Cosell <seismo!cosell@bbn-labs-b>
Subject: c/flavors

c/flavors is a object package we did here at BBN.  It was developed as
a by-product of porting a big graphics system from a Symbolics LISP 
machine to a SUN workstation.  What we did was take a coherent subset
of the Symbolics flavors package (and it was no mean feat figuring out
a closed, coherent subset from the rambling mess 'real' flavors had grown
to be) and then designed a suitably c-like syntax for it, andthen
wrote a program to take a C source file which included c/flavors
operations and process it to a c source file with calls to a run
time library.

We hanndle full inheritance and wrappers and all of that good junk,
but the actual flavor/method set up is done at compile time.  Thus
you cannot write a program that dynamically creates new flavors, 
modifies the mixin structure, add instance variables or sets up a new
method.  We support all of these operations fully, but only statically.

If you're interested I can send you a copy of the manual for it.  Sending
you the code is more problematic: you'll have to contact one of the
legal types here at BBN to figure out what has to get done to get you a 
copy (I don't think they expect money but they might want some kind of
proprietary agreement or the like, but I don't really know: Ionly write the
code and collect my salary.  The guys in suits upstairs worry about this
kind of stuff).

   /Bernie

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-- 
Keith Gorlen	seismo!elsie!cecil!keith