OO: Threat or Menace? (was: Re: OO fans bashing Joins)

"topmind" <topmindNOtoSPAM_at_technologist.com.invalid> wrote in message news:05684040.d97411a2_at_usw-ex0104-033.remarq.com...

> In article <sd3g1n909n44_at_corp.supernews.com>, "Joe \"Nuke Me
> Xemu\" Foster" <joe_at_bftsi0.UUCP> wrote:
> >"topmind" <topmindNOtoSPAM_at_technologist.com.invalid> wrote in
 message news:0110ea04.187c7858_at_usw-ex0104-031.remarq.com...
> >
> >> >> You're not listening. I said it was people thing rather
 than
> >> a technological thing. <<
 

> >> So you are admitting that procedural/relational programming
 can
> >> be just a reuse friendly as OO?
> >
> >If it was designed with reuse in mind, sure. OO may make it
 easier, just as
> >it often helps make larger projects more manageable.
 

> What about small and medium projects? Should app builders for
> them be burdened by constructs meant for mostly larger projects?

I see what you mean here. I'm afraid I've been looking at this from a C++ish perspective, in which avoiding overhead for unused features is supposedly a priority. This is also true of the "Object Assist" add-in for VB 4 and 5 (but apparently not 6 =( ). If you don't use it, you don't get the overhead.

> >> >> Oh, but those are the ones are coming from the decidedly
> >> wrong paradigm of procedural programming. It's harder to play
> >> the song correctly if you've first learned to play it
> >> incorrectly or have picked up bad habits. :) <<
 

> >> Yeah, whatever. OO is an annoying fad the belongs only in
> >> specific niches. All those stupid animal and shape examples do
> >> not translate into real world benefits, they only sell the
 crap
> >> to naive PHB's who like a good story.
> >
> >The bank account example strikes me as being useful and
 relevant. Each type
> >of bank account inherits from a generic bank account type, and
 methods can
> >be overridden depending on how each type of account, say,
 generates interest,
> >finance charges, etc. etc.
 

> Boy, did you pick the wrong example!
 

> Please see:
> http://www.geocities.com/tablizer/bank.htm
 

> Here is a quote from it:
 

> "In the middle of Andrew's example it suddenly occurred to me
> that I once had a bank account that had both checks and
> interest! ...This issue highlights a typical problem with
> inheritance. Changes and variations rarely follow a hierarchical
> pattern in the real world. Both marketing and management would
> much rather view the customer banking plans as combinations of
> features rather than a hierarchy. "

Multiple inheritance? This is needed for things C where C is both an A *and* a B, but neither A nor B is an ancestor of the other. However, this brings in the whole "Multiple Inheritance: Threat or Menace" debate...

--
Joe Foster <mailto:jfoster_at_ricochet.net>  Space Cooties! <http://www.xenu.net/>
WARNING: I cannot be held responsible for the above        They're   coming  to
because  my cats have  apparently  learned to type.        take me away, ha ha!