Cobra libraries

[K. Houwen]

I've read that Chuck is working on a JVM back-end and also have planned an Objective-C one. A question that comes to my mind is, can we still rely on the .NET/Mono libraries using one of these backends? Will it be possible to write a Cobra app that can be used in all back-ends?

[Charles]

Regardless of what back-ends get added, your current .NET-based .cobra files will continue to work with .NET.

No they won't work with the other back-ends (unless they are very, very trivial).

You'll also be able to use the specific libraries for the other back-ends, such as AppKit on Apple when using Cobra/ObjC.

We'll eventually have a "Cobra Portable Library" so that you can do data structures and algos and such in Cobra that will run on any back-end. But we are a long way from having that, so do not hold your breath.

[K. Houwen]

I can follow you on the fact that this will allow people to use libraries from Java and Apple, but will this not be negative for the language. You will have people using Cobra with JVM, but it will be impossible to run it on Mono/NET or vice versa. Knowing that devs are always ready to start a fight about languages, I'm wondering what this will bring. (hope you get the point, because I don't know how to explain it in English )

[Charles]

You're concerned that having different back-ends with access to platform-specific libraries will divide the community. But the community is already divided: Will we deploy on a Linux server or Windows? GUI or Web? Which GUI framework? Which web framework?

So this is nothing new.

With additional back-ends, I hope to bring in more users and give people more choice when tackling projects.

[K. Houwen]

The way I look at Cobra is as a language that close the gap there now is between deploying on a NET / Mono machine. The differences between the two can be captured in Cobra libraries, so you can write real cross-platform apps. But I get your point, give the choice to the developers.