Re: back to: improving rpg. was: what is object oriented programming

[Hans Boldt <boldt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve Richter wrote:
> ...
> If RPG is open sourced, IBM still makes its $$ thru the required websphere,
> those who want IBM RPG can keep it, there is no need for an IBM run
> committee, and the marketplace will decide quite efficiently whether a more
> modular rpg is workable or not.

Like I said in my last post, if you want an OO-RPG, go for it! Do it 
like early C++ did with a pre-processor. I'm sure you can find a few 
others who'd be quite happy to join you in an open-source project.

But first, you have to decide what kind of OO language do you want:

1) Dynamic versus static type checking - that is, do you want to 
have strong compile-time type checking like C++ and Java? or 
run-time type checking like Smalltalk, Perl, and Python?
2) Single versus multiple inheritance?
3) Everything object (like Python)? or some types primitive (like 
C++, Perl, and Java)? (Probably has to be the latter, though.)
4) Do you want to offer the capability to do meta-class programming? 
or reflection?
5) Do you want to define a standard class library for things like 
collection classes? Or define a few built-in collection classes 
(like Perl and Python)?

Cheers! Hans