Re: [open-cobol-list] OO in pure C behind the scenes?

[Brian Tiffin]

On Thu, 09 May 2013 20:08:51 -0400, Patrick  
<address@hidden> wrote:

> Hi Everyone
>
> So my Cobol studies are coming along well, if I am not working to feed
> by kids or looking after them, I am studying Cobol. I bought 7 more  
> books.
>
> I know C but I don't think I am amazing at it by any means.
>
> I would really like to become an open Cobol developer in a year or so
> but I will need to study C and Cobol in order to be of any use.
>
> C++ scares me. People beat up C but not like C++. It really seems like a
> huge language with the weak C core.
>
> I can program in C++ but I am concerned about writing excellent quality
> code in C++
>
> I am thinking about reading this book:
> http://www.planetpdf.com/codecuts/pdfs/ooc.pdf
>
> and studying OO in vanilla C.
>
> It is my understanding that OO has been available in ANSI C for a long
> time. It just sounds like it is just so butt ugly as to be hard to use.
>
> If we implement OO in pure C behind the scenes, the ugliness would not
> matter.
>
> Is it fair to say we don't really have a primary developer right now? Is
> it fair to say that it is unlikely that we will have a primary developer
> that is capable of writing mission critical C++?

Yes, no.

> Does anyone think that sticking with C would maintain an approachable
> project for new developers to start with?

Yes.

> -Patrick

Patrick, take a peek at Vala too.  It's GObject OO, but OO none the less,  
and exposes C linkage names for COBOL CALL using a very predictable name  
mangling (not really mangling).

http://opencobol.add1tocobol.com/#can-opencobol-interface-with-vala

Along with the C# syntax, you can use valac for Python style Genie  
programming.  Way fun, and there will someday be GObject introspection  
tools in OpenCOBOL, umm, or at least I plan on such.  That'll make  
OpenCOBOL directly linkable by any GLib introspectable programming system.

There is also LLVM and clang, which OpenCOBOL builds to almost  
effortlessly.

http://opencobol.add1tocobol.com/#does-opencobol-work-with-llvm

Cheers,
Brian