The Components of Caché
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For
writing Caché class methods and routines, InterSystems supports two
interoperable scripting languages: Caché ObjectScript and Caché Basic.
Both are designed for high-performance database and business logic scripting,
and both support object, SQL, and multidimensional access to Caché data.
Caché Scripting Languages
Although Caché classes can be projected to a number of technologies (such as Java, COM, and C++) for business logic scripting, it is recommended that – in order to achieve the maximum performance and scalability – developers should write some of their class methods and routines within Caché. For database and business logic scripting, Caché gives developers the choice of two high-performance scripting languages.
Caché ObjectScript
The original Caché scripting language, Caché ObjectScript is a powerful and easy-to-learn object-oriented language. One interesting feature of Caché ObjectScript is that it enables the intermixing of data access methods – developers may view data as objects, as relational tables (using SQL), or as multidimensional arrays. Also, unlike some other object languages, Caché ObjectScript allows stand-alone routines. It does not require that all code be part of some object class method.
Since Caché ObjectScript is completely compatible with InterSystems’ other products, it is likely to be the favored language of developers who are already familiar with Caché’s multidimensional data format. It is also a natural choice for developers who are accustomed to object-oriented programming techniques.
Caché Basic
Caché Basic was added as a scripting language in order to provide an easy way for Visual Basic programmers to start using Caché. Similar to VBScript, Caché Basic includes extensions that enable it to run on the Caché Virtual Machine. Thus, Caché Basic is interoperable with Caché ObjectScript, and enjoys the same special features. Like Caché ObjectScript, it supports object, SQL, and multidimensional access to Caché data. Caché Basic also allows stand-alone routines.
Essentially, anyone who knows Visual Basic, knows Caché Basic. This allows many of the world’s developers to take instant advantage of Caché’s high performance and rapid application development capabilities.
Complete Interoperability
Both Caché ObjectScript and Caché Basic are implemented on the same lightning-fast Caché Virtual Machine
This makes Caché ObjectScript and Caché Basic completely interoperable:
- Class and object methods can mix the two languages.
- Caché Basic routines can be called from within Caché ObjectScript routines.
- Caché ObjectScript routines can be called from within Caché Basic routines.
Caché Studio is designed to debug and compile code written in either Caché ObjectScript or Caché Basic.
