jww@sdcsvax.UUCP (Joel West) (10/24/85)
In article <131@vecpyr.UUCP>, markl@vecpyr.UUCP (Mark Patrick) writes: > I would be most grateful if someone could provide me with information > on the availability of documentation/source for C++. Does it support > any form of dynamic typing at runtime? This is as good an excuse as any to talk about a piece of mail that recently crossed my desk. While I have not used C++, I did do fairly extensive research on object-oriented languages a few months back. C++ and Apple's Object Pascal were the two new compiled languages (as opposed to Smalltalk and the Lisp-based languages) and were similar in providing dynamic typing and other object-oriented constructs cleanly integrated with the base (C, Pascal) language. (I'm omitting Simula, if only because the base language is Algol-60.) C++ seemed slightly more powerful, particularly in the availability of constructors, which were devilishly clever macros that give an almost Lisp-like extensibility to the language. To my knowledge, Object Pascal is still in Beta testing on Lisa's only. However, as a System V licensee I had a notice from 800 828-UNIX cross my desk, announcing the availability of C++ from AT&T. The gist seems to be that if you have an AT&T license, you can get the source code for a C++ to C translator for $2k, supplied without support (shades of pre-divestiture). Although it's designed only for AT&T computers, it is said to run on machines that have a C compiler that * supports variable names of arbitrary length, and * support structure assignment. I know it has run on VAX's running System V and BSD 4.2. For more info, it's 800 828-UNIX. Joel West CACI, Inc. - Federal (c/o UC San Diego) {ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww jww@SDCSVAX.ARPA I am not in any way affiliated with the purveyors of the cult of UNIX.
weh@druny.UUCP (HopkinsWE) (10/31/85)
The best and complete source of information on C++ is the book
"The C++ Programming Language", by Bjarne Stroutrup (the designer
of C++ and implementor of the translator), published by Addison-Wesley,
copyright 1986, ISBN 0-201-12078. While waiting for the book, you can
consult an article that Bjarne wrote for the AT&T Bell Labs Technical
Journal, "Data Abstraction In C", which appears in the October 1984
issue (the special Unix* System issue).
I've been using C++ for a few months now and, quite frankly, I will
never go back to using "old C".
It is highly portable (I've brought it up on System V VAX 11/780*, AT&T 3B20
and 3B2, and Amdahl 5860 running their UTS, and I know it has been
successfully ported to a VAX running 4.2BSD and Apollo workstations running
AUX [System III?]). It is available for $250 for educational institutions,
$2000 for commercial (first cpu, $1000 additional cpus)...and we're talking
source code, not just object. As mentioned in the previous article,
contact the AT&T Sales and Marketing types at 1-800-828-UNIX.
Bill Hopkins rm. 30f16
AT&T Information Systems
11900 N. Pecos St.
Denver, Colorado 80234
(303)538-4944
*Unix is still a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories
VAX is a trademark for Digital Equipment Corp.
{ihnp4|allegra}!druny!weh