SKILL Q: Abandoned in v.6?

In a previous thread (on another matter), someone brought up this
question:

Is SKILL EOL in the next version of Cadence? If so, what is this "OA
database" that is supposed to take its place. Is that another Lisp-
like extension language?

Edward

 

I'm repeating this response in all the duplicate postings of the same question,
because I don't want anyone coming across this question without a corresponding
response.

No. This is completely and utterly wrong, as I stated in my response to that
post. There is no truth whatsover in this. I can't state this strongly enough.

Just because the underlying database is changing does not mean that the
extension language changes. The SKILL API to the database has been kept
(it's effectively an abstraction anyway, so the fact that the database
implementation has changed can be kept transparent) with new SKILL functions
added to support the new OpenAccess objects that weren't there in CDB.

Regards,

Andrew.

 

No, that would be dumb. The poster ("tech11") that posted wasn't
even wrong, as the saying goes. (The database a tool uses to store
data has next to nothing to do w/the extension language that tool
supports).

Again, confusing the database w/the extension language. OpenAccess
is a new database that is supported by multiple vendors.

http://www.si2.org/?page=69

SKILL is a programming language that Cadence uses as a tool
extension language. IC61 is OA only (no CDB support), but the
vast majority of your SKILL code won't have to change at all.

-Jay-

 

Andrew,

Thanks for the quick clarification. I apologize for the double-post.
Google groups did not update its list to show my earlier post, so I
thought perhaps my first post had somehow evaporated into the digital
ether.

Also: what a relief! My interest in Skill & Lisp did not pick up
until this year, and I would hate for such a wonderful extension
language to either be swept back under the carpet of a monolithic-
release model, or changed into a more procedural language like Perl
or Tcl.

Thanks again,

Edward

 

As others have stated, SKILL is here to stay. SKILL has over 50,000
basic
functions which provide you all the power that Cadence has to
integrate into and manipulate whatever database you desire, whether it
be CDB or OpenAccess, generally with the same SKILL programs for both
databases.

If, in the future, additional extension languages are standardized and
accepted, Virtuoso will most likely support those additional
formats ... in addition to SKILL (not as a replacement).

Bearing in mind the 50K basic capabilities that SKILL has today ...
(IMHO) it will be a looooooooooong time before any standard language
will have that kind of user power ... and, if it does, Cadence will
include it into the software so you'll get the best of both worlds.

A key question to ask of any purported new "standard" is ...
Q: Do you (the makers of the standard) actually create new software
using the extension language?
A: (Cadence SKILL) YES (thousands of software applications are written
in SKILL)
A: (Thousands of Cadence Customers using SKILL ) YES (again, thousands
of complete applications)
A: TCL (most likely, no way except for the script kiddies)

John Gianni