Thread overview
I'm falling wayyyy behind
Aug 21, 2003
Walter
Aug 21, 2003
Derek Parnell
Aug 21, 2003
Walter
Aug 21, 2003
Matthew Wilson
Aug 21, 2003
Alen Siljak
Aug 21, 2003
Matthew Wilson
Aug 21, 2003
Walter
Aug 21, 2003
Mike Wynn
make D interact with COM components
Aug 23, 2003
repost
August 21, 2003
Sorry folks, but I'm probably fallen at least 200 messages behind in this n.g. D seems to be experiencing an explosive growth in popularity lately <g>. I'm sorry if I'm not giving timely answers like I should be.


August 21, 2003
On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 23:23:30 -0700 (08/21/03 16:23:30)
, Walter <walter@digitalmars.com> wrote:

> Sorry folks, but I'm probably fallen at least 200 messages behind in this
> n.g. D seems to be experiencing an explosive growth in popularity lately
> <g>. I'm sorry if I'm not giving timely answers like I should be.
>

Walter, don't sweat it. You are amongst the MOST responsive product owners out there. Take your time and respond accordingly, is my advice.

-- 
Derek
August 21, 2003
No worries, mate. ;)

"Walter" <walter@digitalmars.com> wrote in message news:bi1okj$1qma$2@digitaldaemon.com...
> Sorry folks, but I'm probably fallen at least 200 messages behind in this n.g. D seems to be experiencing an explosive growth in popularity lately <g>. I'm sorry if I'm not giving timely answers like I should be.
>
>


August 21, 2003
Gee, Walter, I joined the newsgroup the other day and was just wondering how can you catch up with all the aspects of work related to the creation of a new language.
I wish you all the best in your endeavors. The D happens to be what I expected from c# long time ago.

Let me mention a thought I had yesterday. In order to use D in a real-life environment I believe it would be very useful for our programs to be able to interact with components in other languages. This would be "a small door entrance" for the language but a very useful one until the libraries and controls are coded in D. In commercial environments we have lots of purchased or (long-time-ago) compiled libraries that still need to be used (c++, c, vb, now even dotnet).
How hard is it to make D interact with COM components, for example?

Alen

Walter wrote:
> Sorry folks, but I'm probably fallen at least 200 messages behind in this
> n.g. D seems to be experiencing an explosive growth in popularity lately
> <g>. I'm sorry if I'm not giving timely answers like I should be.
> 
> 

August 21, 2003
"Derek Parnell" <derek.parnell@no.spam> wrote in message news:oprt8surm359ej19@news.digitalmars.com...
> On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 23:23:30 -0700 (08/21/03 16:23:30)
> , Walter <walter@digitalmars.com> wrote:
>
> > Sorry folks, but I'm probably fallen at least 200 messages behind in
this
> > n.g. D seems to be experiencing an explosive growth in popularity lately <g>. I'm sorry if I'm not giving timely answers like I should be.
> >
>
> Walter, don't sweat it. You are amongst the MOST responsive product owners out there. Take your time and respond accordingly, is my advice.

I actually like talking to my customers <g>. Too many companies and their developers seem to think that their tech support staff's sole job is to prevent the engineers from ever having to talk to the customers. Sigh. I spend at least half my day responding to email and ng postings. It's not a burden at all, quite the contrary, that's how I learn new stuff and get motivated to work on the product.


August 21, 2003
"Alen Siljak" <alen@djesi.ba> wrote in message news:bi1rvp$20ak$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> Gee, Walter, I joined the newsgroup the other day and was just wondering
> how can you catch up with all the aspects of work related to the
> creation of a new language.
> I wish you all the best in your endeavors. The D happens to be what I
> expected from c# long time ago.
>
> Let me mention a thought I had yesterday. In order to use D in a
> real-life environment I believe it would be very useful for our programs
> to be able to interact with components in other languages. This would be
> "a small door entrance" for the language but a very useful one until the
> libraries and controls are coded in D. In commercial environments we
> have lots of purchased or (long-time-ago) compiled libraries that still
> need to be used (c++, c, vb, now even dotnet).
> How hard is it to make D interact with COM components, for example?

Pretty easy really, fundamentally speaking. It's not yet trivial in practise, but the fundamental stuff is in there, so it will be in the long run


August 21, 2003
"Alen Siljak" <alen@djesi.ba> wrote in message news:bi1rvp$20ak$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> Let me mention a thought I had yesterday. In order to use D in a real-life environment I believe it would be very useful for our programs to be able to interact with components in other languages. This would be "a small door entrance" for the language but a very useful one until the libraries and controls are coded in D. In commercial environments we have lots of purchased or (long-time-ago) compiled libraries that still need to be used (c++, c, vb, now even dotnet).

D can hook directly to anything that can support C interfacing.

> How hard is it to make D interact with COM components, for example?

No problem - D interfaces are actually COM vtables!


August 21, 2003
"Walter" <walter@digitalmars.com> wrote in message news:bi1sns$21ih$1@digitaldaemon.com...
>
> "Alen Siljak" <alen@djesi.ba> wrote in message news:bi1rvp$20ak$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> > Let me mention a thought I had yesterday. In order to use D in a real-life environment I believe it would be very useful for our programs to be able to interact with components in other languages. This would be "a small door entrance" for the language but a very useful one until the libraries and controls are coded in D. In commercial environments we have lots of purchased or (long-time-ago) compiled libraries that still need to be used (c++, c, vb, now even dotnet).
>
> D can hook directly to anything that can support C interfacing.
and windows stdcall.

> > How hard is it to make D interact with COM components, for example?
>
> No problem - D interfaces are actually COM vtables!
>
two problems .... COM interfaces are an ordered set of methods
D interfaces are an ordered set of functions (name +sig [not sure if it
includes return types as a java sig does])
if you declare 2 interfaces which both have a function with the same name
and signature then both interfaces get that as their implementation. you
chose it either change the interface name
or cheat, create a copy of the interface with a different name but the same
super i/f and layout and use that instead, (see problem 2)
you have to manually write QueryInterface ... being lazy I'd prefer a nice
way to get this automated, but it requires a solution to problem 1 (C++ has
the scope op :: to solve such issues)
as currently you can return any i/f you like for a given IID there is no
compiler checking that you are doing the right thing.
COM Delphi is a little easier, but C/C++ is a lot harder, even with ATL.



August 23, 2003
>How hard is it to make D interact with COM components, for example?
===============

Pretty easy really, fundamentally speaking. It's not yet trivial in
practise, but the fundamental stuff is in there, so it will be in the long
run
=================
No problem - D interfaces are actually COM vtables!
===============
two problems .... COM interfaces are an ordered set of methods
D interfaces are an ordered set of functions (name +sig [not sure if it
includes return types as a java sig does])
if you declare 2 interfaces which both have a function with the same name
and signature then both interfaces get that as their implementation. you
chose it either change the interface name
or cheat, create a copy of the interface with a different name but the same
super i/f and layout and use that instead, (see problem 2)
you have to manually write QueryInterface ... being lazy I'd prefer a nice
way to get this automated, but it requires a solution to problem 1 (C++ has
the scope op :: to solve such issues)
as currently you can return any i/f you like for a given IID there is no
compiler checking that you are doing the right thing.
COM Delphi is a little easier, but C/C++ is a lot harder, even with ATL.
====================


please change subject title when tangent occurs
thanks