OO in Mathematica
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg37445] OO in Mathematica
- From: "Hermann Schmitt" <schmitther at netcologne.de>
- Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 00:50:46 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Hello, I often heard, that Maeder's OO Package is not good, I do not know the package myself. I intend to introduce an own OO Package, soon, probably in November. My OO Package is very general. It even has essential features, which are missing in Java. I e.g support multiple inheritance. I think, the interfaces of Java are only a weak substitute of multiple inheritance. Additionally, I think, languages with typed data fiels are at a disadvantage. It should be possible, to call methods with the same name in objects of different classes without needing to know of which class an object is. This is only possbile, if objects of different classes can be stored in the same data field. Based on the fact, that Mathematica is an interpreted language, classes can be build temporarily in the program. In a later step I shall make it possible to store objects on disk (called "serialization" in OO). I think, it could be advantageous in some cases to have both programs and data available throuth the same file. I see no essential difference between an OO system built into Mathematica and an OO system in a separate package. Both are based on the same Mathematica system. I shall inform the mathgroup, when the package is available. I shall make it available on my web site: www.schmitther.de Hermann Schmitt