Re: The wisdom of the object mentors (Was: Searching OO Associations with RDBMS Persistence Models)

Marshall wrote:

> I'm curious: do you have a definition of "behavior"? I hear this word a
> lot and I'm not sure exactly what is intended. Is a method behavior? Is a
> class behavior? What about a function? Is behavior a transformation of
> data? Wouldn't this make it a synonym for calculation?

I use "behavior" to mean "anywhere in C++ that you can put a breakpoint". Structure is the places where you can't.

(That implies more dynamic languages, such as Ruby, express more structure with executable lines. So "behavior" in Ruby is less than all the places you could put a breakpoint.)

Hence "Designing a program requires balancing its structure in memory with its behavior in time."

And I don't agree that calling databases "non-behavior-centric" is helpful. Just because you can't put a C++ breakpoint there doesn't mean they don't behave...

-- 
  Phlip