X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1485" "Sun" "5" "December" "1999" "23:54:46" "+0100" "Hans Aberg" "haberg@MATEMATIK.SU.SE" nil "29" "Re: Classes -- a generalization of templates" "^Date:" nil nil "12" nil nil nil nil nil] nil) Return-Path: Received: via tmail-4.1(11) (invoked by user schoepf) for schoepf; Mon, 6 Dec 1999 00:07:03 +0100 (MET) Received: from mail.Uni-Mainz.DE (trudi.zdv.Uni-Mainz.DE [134.93.8.159]) by mailserver1.zdv.Uni-Mainz.DE (8.9.1b+Sun/8.9.1) with ESMTP id AAA26627 for ; Mon, 6 Dec 1999 00:07:03 +0100 (MET) Received: from mail.listserv.gmd.de (mail.listserv.gmd.de [192.88.97.5]) by mail.Uni-Mainz.DE (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id AAA20239 for ; Mon, 6 Dec 1999 00:07:02 +0100 (MET) Received: from mail.listserv.gmd.de (192.88.97.5) by mail.listserv.gmd.de (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <15.455E0AB7@mail.listserv.gmd.de>; Mon, 6 Dec 1999 0:06:56 +0100 Received: from RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE by RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 445211 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Mon, 6 Dec 1999 00:06:23 +0100 Received: from relay.uni-heidelberg.de (relay.uni-heidelberg.de [129.206.100.212]) by relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id AAA14103 for ; Mon, 6 Dec 1999 00:06:21 +0100 (MET) Received: from knatte.tninet.se (knatte.tninet.se [195.100.94.10]) by relay.uni-heidelberg.de (8.9.1b+Sun/8.9.1) with SMTP id XAA14211 for ; Sun, 5 Dec 1999 23:55:30 +0100 (MET) Received: (qmail 17678 invoked from network); 5 Dec 1999 23:55:39 +0100 Received: from du137-226.ppp.su-anst.tninet.se (HELO ?195.100.226.137?) (195.100.226.137) by knatte.tninet.se with SMTP; 5 Dec 1999 23:55:39 +0100 X-Sender: haberg@pop.matematik.su.se Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Message-ID: Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project In-Reply-To: <417f4014@corona.oche.de> Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 23:54:46 +0100 From: Hans Aberg Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L Subject: Re: Classes -- a generalization of templates Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 3447 At 12:23 +0000 1999/12/04, Achim Blumensath wrote: >I don't think that an object-oriented approach is appropriate for LaTeX. >Objects are entities with an internal state capable of sending and >responding to messages. Thus, they are active elements. There are two separate aspects of what is called OOP or object oriented programming, one that the objects are dynamic (as you say), and another that the objects constitute localized namespaces. OOP, which is (originally) just an empirical notion does not require that the two aspects be valid simultaneously. I think I pointed that the dynamic aspect does not appear to make sense in TeX. Therefore I concentrated on the static, namespace, aspect, which just as templates just requires macro expansions. But is not so easy to reject the idea that also the dynamic aspect of OOP might have something corresponding in TeX -- the LaTeX templates already have a notion of computing immediately or later. And selecting commands based on type of an object is surely possible in the object model I presented. Anyway, this is a question of transport of ideas, and not a transport of logical computer structures. Whatever happens in LaTeX will be on the terms of LaTeX and what is possible to do within the TeX program. Hans Aberg * Email: Hans Aberg * Home Page: * AMS member listing: