Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!eos!shelby!med!hanauma!rick
From: rick@hanauma.stanford.edu (Richard Ottolini)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Structured Code browser for Objective-C classes .....
Message-ID: <127@med.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 27 Sep 89 21:20:34 GMT
References: <12146@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Sender: news@med.stanford.edu (USENET News System)
Reply-To: rick@hanauma.UUCP (Richard Ottolini)
Organization: Stanford University, Dept. of Geophysics
Lines: 33

In article <12146@boulder.Colorado.EDU> chase@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Stumpy) writes:
>A structured code browser that I have in mind is similar to the Smalltalk
>browser. For instance, when I invoke the class view within the IB, I am
>able to "see" a class hierarchy and the messages associated with each class.
>However, when I attempt to "get at the code" associated with a message
>(via a double-click on the message), nothing happens.  In Smalltalk, when
>you select a message, the code is displayed and the programmer can modify the
>code there.
>
>I think it is a shame that ideas such as a structured code browser are
>not included within the NeXT environment.  ParcPlace has a product for
>the C++ world which does include a structured code browser.  Furthermore,
>I have heard that Stepstone does have a structured code browser for
>Objective-C.  Where is it?  And why wasn't it included in the IB?
>
> 


Structured browsers are harder in C-based languages because they go through
two steps of compilation where information MAY be discarded-- first C++/ObjectiveC
into straight C where lot of the objectiveness is lost and C into executable
where symbols names and structures may be eliminated.  Smalltalk was
originally interpretated and always kept its object organization around.

These days the boundary between interpretation and compilation are less
distinct.  Smalltalk has a virtual-machine low level code and good C debuggers
retain most of the original code information.

UNIX/C is gradually acquiring many of the characteristics of the Smalltalk
environment, first with objective C, second with NeXTStep, and third with
NeXTStep applications.  Straight Smalltalk had been painfully slow, even
on Xerox machines, until the recent ParcPlace implementations on 10-MIPS+
workstations, so it was a curiosity rather than a platform in most labs.