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In article <3363@tekfdi.FDI.TEK.COM> kyleb@tekfdi.FDI.TEK.COM (Kyle Bernard) writes:
>There have been some recent mentions of object oriented programming 'by hand'
>in C:
>
>I am interested in pointers to information (books, articles, etc.) concerning
>this method of implementing objected oriented designs.  Our development
>environment is very much C based and the migration to object based analysis
>and design appears difficult enough without adding the problems of setting
>up a new implementation environment.
>
>Also, I am very interested in the experiences/impressions of those who are
>currently using (or have used) C to implement objected oriented designs.
>
>Thanks,
>Kyle.

A couple of points:

1) It's fairly simple to get encapsulation by doing something like:

typedef struct _foo {
	...
	int	(*add)();
	...
} *FOO;

You can then invoke the 'add' function for a given 'object' by dereferencing
the pointer and calling the function.  This, I believe, is what was referred
to in a previous posting.  This is very nice and now that I've been using
encapsulation for a while I would never go back.  But personally I find that
inheritance is an even bigger plus, since it is what saves me typing (and
therefore mega-time, even though I am a fairly fast touch typist).


2) This is perhaps somewhat off the subject but...

I've recently implemented a somewhat brain-dead objects-a-la-Smalltalk front end
translator for C using 'nawk' (the new 'awk'), some shell scripts, and some
rather abusive uses of the C preprocessor and macros.  It is rather fragile (if
your input isn't just as the translator wants it to be, it throws a tantrum),
but other than that :) it is fairly nice.  If there is interest, I'd be
willing to discuss how this was done (then again, everyone has probably had
their fill of 'how I created my own OO extenstions to C' by now... :-).

Thanks,
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