InterSystems Cache ObjectScript vs Java as in Web application development

Question

Recently My Project Manger has asked me to work on InterSystems Cache ObjectScript. Earlier i used to work as Java Developer (J2EE). So my question is how different is Cache from java. Comparison would be great to have.

Answer 1

Caché ObjectScript is very different from Java and has very little in common. It is more like dynamically typed compiled scripting language with meta language built in (class definitions) and with a large number of features you need to know to write the good code. All the code is compiled to a low-level (but pretty readable) so-called routine code and is processed by DBMS Caché and its application engine.

Take for example this reference. As you may notice, there are many weird symbols and structures like $, $$, $$$, ##class, &sql(...), &javascript<...>, #dim, $System, .#, $get, $zu(...), %, ^%, { ... }, ... (this list is big). Some of the language features are very unpredictable from the first glance. For example, function $get(...) looks like a fundtion but silently acts like a try/catch statement, as well as $data and some other system functions.

So prepare to work with InterSystems documentation! Also, recently developed InterSystems community is a great resource. And while Googling, you may find quite a few answers out of the internet, but just keep in mind to search with “intersystems” or “objectscript” keywords. But many things you won’t find there, and in this case you should use InterSystems docs or community to ask the questions. Once you will get used to the language (which for me took over 6 months), you will feel more confident in it.

Also it is worth mention that Caché ObjectScript is literally “dinosaur” language, which involves and upgrades over time. That’s why there are so many different features. Some of them you shouldn’t use anymore: for example, instead of writing code in routine, like people did before OOP concepths were introduced, you should use classes. ObjectScript’s JSON capabilities (ability to write JSON inside ObjectScript) was intoduced just approximately 1 year ago. And you may find a plenty of “prehistoric” code in Caché and should take it normally: it is a really huge ecosystem.

Hope this helps, happy hacking!