Re: Bob's 'Self-aggrandizing ignorant' Count: Was: What databases have taught me

From: erk <eric.kaun_at_gmail.com>
Date: 29 Jun 2006 07:24:51 -0700
Message-ID: <1151591091.755065.142890_at_i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>


Bob Badour wrote:
> Sadly, I have not found an online version of Hoare's paper, which is a
> shame because it was such an important founding document for an entire
> genre of programming languages. I only know about it from references
> Dijkstra made to it.

Disclaimer: I found these via Google, and have no idea what copyright implications there are here.

Record Handling:
http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=1061041&type=pdf&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618 or
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/algol/ACM_Algol_bulletin/1061032/p39-hoare.pdf

Further Record Handling:
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/algol/ACM_Algol_bulletin/1061064/p5-hoare.pdf

> At the same time, the observation offers some insight into the risks of
> OO and suggests at least one criterion for good OO design: avoid
> excessive or overly complex state.

I've always felt that OO could be used successfully to create user-defined types, which could then be used effectively "as" attributes in relations. As a larger "structuring" constructs, objects are problematic to say the least. The variance/contravariance problems in mutable containers are a major source of problems, and as commonly used, most object classes ARE mutable containers.

As domains of values, object hierarchies have value.  

  • erk
Received on Thu Jun 29 2006 - 16:24:51 CEST

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