INTERPRETED ENVIRONMENT FOR C++ SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

INCREASED SOFTWARE COMPLEXITY LED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES. AT THEIR CORE ARE OBJECTS CONSISTING OF PROTECTED DATA BEHIND PUBLIC INTERFACES. THE ADVANTAGE OF THIS APPROACH IS THAT COUPLING BETWEEN DIFFERENT PARTS OF AN APPLICATION IS REDUCED, SIMPLIFYING APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE. TWO CLASSES OF OBJECT-ORIENTED LANGUAGES EXIST: INTERPRETED (E.G., SMALLTALK), AND COMPILED (E.G., C++). INTERPRETED LANGUAGES OFFER SIMPLE, PRODUCTIVE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS BUT ARE LESS EFFICIENT THAN COMPILED LANGUAGES BECAUSE THEY MUST PERFORM RUN-TIME TYPE CHECKING AND FUNCTION BINDING. WHILE C++ OFFERS BETTER PERFORMANCE AND TYPE SAFETY, IT IS MUCH MORE COMPLEX. C++ IS THE MOST POPULAR OBJECT-ORIENTED LANGUAGE IN USE TODAY, BUT IS DIFFICULT TO USE DUE TO ITS ROOTS IN THE C LANGUAGE, AND ITS COMPLEX OBJECT-ORIENTED CONSTRUCTS. INTERPRETED AND COMPILED LANGUAGES ARE VIEWED COMMONLY AS ANTAGONISTIC. A SIMPLE, INTERPRETED LANGUAGE THAT WILL TIE TOGETHER CLASSES WRITTEN IN C++ CAN BE CREATED. RESEARCHERS ARE CREATING A HYBRID ENVIRONMENT THAT PROVIDES THE ADVANTAGES OF BOTH INTERPRETED AND COMPILED LANGUAGES. THIS ENVIRONMENT PROVIDES A POWERFUL, RAPID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT CAPABILITY. IT PROVIDES MECHANISM TO EASILY CREATE C++ APPLICATIONS FOR PARALLEL AND DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING ARCHITECTURES AND WILL LEVERAGE THE GROWING NUMBER OF C++ CLASS LIBRARIES.