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From: =?UTF-8?Q?Arne_Vajh=C3=B8j?= <arne@vajhoej.dk>
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: OpenVMS system programming language
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2025 16:55:31 -0500
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In-Reply-To: <vpikfh$1eak4$5@dont-email.me>

On 2/24/2025 3:23 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> On Mon, 24 Feb 2025 14:37:54 -0500, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> The lack of unsigned integers is a PITA.
> 
> Also the lack of typedefs. A basic convenience, but such an important one.

typedef is very much used in C.

Type declarations are part of the Pascal way.

But I don't think it is the same in OO languages.

I have never heard a Java developer ask for it.

C# has the functionality (in using directive). But I
have never used it myself and I don't think I have
ever seen code using it (note: I am talking about
using for type alias only - using for namespace alias is
used occasionally).

Kotlin also has it and even though it is used then
I would call it rare.

I cannot demo C# on VMS< but Kotlin runs on VMS, so:

$ type ta.kt
typealias OneToMany<T> = Map<T,List<T>>

fun dump(m: OneToMany<String>, rt: String) {
     println("$rt:")
     for(lang in m[rt].orEmpty()) {
         println("  $lang")
     }
}

fun main() {
     val m: OneToMany<String> = mapOf(Pair("JVM", listOf("Java", 
"Kotlin", "Scala", "Groovy")),
                                      Pair("CLR", listOf("C#", "VB.NET", 
"F#")))
     dump(m, "JVM")
     dump(m, "CLR")
}
$ kotlinc """ta.kt"""
$ java -cp .:/disk0/net/kotlin/kotlinc/lib/* "TaKt"
JVM:
   Java
   Kotlin
   Scala
   Groovy
CLR:
   C#
   VB.NET
   F#

Arne