Microsoft's C# (Sharp) & .NET -- A Heads Up

[Paul Duffin]

Mark Hammond wrote:
> 
> "David Arnold" <arnold at dstc.monash.edu.au> wrote in message
> news:200007260357.NAA28707 at xevious.dstc.monash.edu.au...
> > -->"Alex" == Alex Martelli <alex at magenta.com> writes:
> >
> >   Alex> since IL does not support multiple inheritance of
> >   Alex> implementation, which full Eiffel wants; dunno what Python
> >   Alex> .NET will do about that).
> >
> > urk!  is that true?  mark?  is this an issue for Python/IL ?
> 
> Yes, and yes.
> 
> Not a huge problem for Python - just a "to be implemented" :-)  Python
> defines very dynamic semantics, meaning we can fake this.
> 
> For example, multiple inheritance when used from Python will work just
> fine - but if you look at this Python class using the .NET disassembler
> (for example), it will not be apparent that this MI exists - the compiler
> will simply generate the code to populate the __bases__ attribute of the
> class, but the actual attribute lookups will still be done at runtime.
> However, I believe that raw benchmark figures will keep pressure on the
> Python port having the necessary tricks to take full advantage of the
> platform when necessary.
> 
> Neil's previous post about the homogenisation of the languages is pretty
> close to the truth - except that this is as much a time and effort issue
> as a requirement forced by the platform.  The Eiffel and Python efforts
> are both putting the existing language semantics over new .NET features,
> but the pressure of getting working code out means we are willing to make
> short-term compromises to get a reasonable 80% solution.  It has been a
> moving target, and anyone expecting to find a fully functional
> implementation of _any_ non-MS language is going to be disappointed.
> Fortunately, we appear to have a reasonable amount of time before this is
> actually released, so it is still very much early days.
> 

How likely do you consider the possibility that Microsoft will change 
the IL to allow the non-MS languages to be fully supported ?

Unless the probability is VERY high what is the point of doing this
at all as you would end up with a versions of the language which were
not compatible with the other versions.