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Date:      Wed, 30 Oct 2002 09:05:43 -0700
From:      Chad David <davidc@issci.ca>
To:        Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
Cc:        freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Objective-C threads
Message-ID:  <20021030090543.A58476@newton.issci.ca>
In-Reply-To: <3DBF8FD8.A68747D8@mindspring.com>; from tlambert2@mindspring.com on Tue, Oct 29, 2002 at 11:52:56PM -0800
References:  <20021029190941.A43525@newton.issci.ca> <3DBF4C35.B554A7C1@mindspring.com> <20021029211322.B45337@newton.issci.ca> <3DBF8FD8.A68747D8@mindspring.com>

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On Tue, Oct 29, 2002 at 11:52:56PM -0800, Terry Lambert wrote:
> Chad David wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 29, 2002 at 07:04:21PM -0800, Terry Lambert wrote:
> > > Chad David wrote:
> > > > Does anybody know if there is a good reason why libobjc is built with
> > > > thr-single.c?
> > >
> > > Historical threads problems.
> > 
> > A few are obvious from simply reading the code.  Do you have any
> > knowledge of specific (non-trivial) problems?
> 
> I used Objective C with threads on NeXT machines for a few years;
> the FreeBSD threads weren't up to dealing with the requirements if
> Objective C, at least until recently (I think some of the changes
> that went into the pthreads standard after Draft 4 were specifically
> put there to aid static initialization of declared Objective C
> objects; they were pushed by people I know to have been NeXTStep
> users).

Other then a few minor issues, I haven't run into anything yet, but
some of our larger servers are not up and running yet!  I'm actually
shying away from the NeXT stuff, and attempting to use the language
for what I see are its strengths (which is not always a gigantic 
class library that nobody has documented, and which has a long history).

> 
> 
> > > > As well, who is the current maintainer of Objective-C?
> > >
> > > Chad David?
> > 
> > By default, since there seem to be no other users?
> 
> I don't really use it.  I like C++, but mostly code in C these
> days.  You can basically write object oriented code in any
> procedural language which deals with structures the right way.

I've spend the last year maintaining 10+ year old C++ and I really
really dislike C++.  I won't argue that each language has its place,
only that given the fact that you don't always have old^H^H^Hexperienced
programmers to work with, the language needs to help out whenever it
can... I think ObjC does that, not quite as well as Java, but much
better then C++.

> 
> Maybe I'm just old, but I think it's more about programmers than
> it is about the languages they use.

That is my point exactly (within reason) :).

> 
> So I'm not an Objective C user; unless a port I use happens to
> require it to work, and I have to fix it, I don't go out of my
> way to code in it, any more than, say, Perl, Java, COBOL, Visual
> C++, or BLISS.  8-).

I'm going out of my way.  I "grew up" with C, then spent five years
with Java, now I'm back to C, and I miss some things (not Java)
which ObjC seems to bring to the table.

> 
> That said, if you want to make it work for you, I'm behind you
> 100%: I think any changes you want to make are OK; they can
> always be backed out, if anyone starts complaining about them
> breaking things, so I think it's kind of silly for you to ask
> for permission to maintain something no one else is maintaining.

I wouldn't say I'm "asking for permission", I'd be more inclined to
say "I'm asking for guidance" :).  I've seen what happens when
somebody commits to gcc, and life is just too short..

-- 
Chad David        davidc@issci.ca
www.FreeBSD.org   davidc@freebsd.org
ISSci Inc.        Calgary, Alberta Canada

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