Re: Mixing OO and DB

From: Robert Martin <unclebob_at_objectmentor.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:38:25 -0600
Message-ID: <200802111038258930-unclebob_at_objectmentorcom>


On 2008-02-08 11:17:54 -0600, Jan Hidders <hidders_at_gmail.com> said:

> They asked Bjarne Stroustrup? Why??
>
> "I invented the term Object-Oriented, and I can tell you I did not
> have C++ in mind."
> - Alan Kay

I don't wish to minimize the contribution that Kay made. It has been enormous. The undercurrents he started with Smalltalk continue to pervade our industry, subsuming it from the bottom up. Revolutions in our thought such as Design Patterns, Agile Development, Test Driven Development, etc, etc, can all be traced to the Smalltalk community.

Having said that, Kay did not invent OO. He may have coined the term, but the concepts were invented years before by Ole Johan Dahl, and Kristian Nygaard in the language Simula-67. (When they moved the calling frame from the stack to the heap.)

Now it happens that both Kay and Stroustrup were influenced by Simula. Both came to very different ends. However, if you were to line up the two results and compare them to the parents, you'd find more similarities between Simula and C++, than between Simula and Smalltalk.  So it is possible to claim (though it would be naive) that Stroustrup remained more faithful to the orginal concept.

Stroustrup's contribution was also huge. But whereas Kay was a visionary who created a subculture that has influenced our industry from the bottom up, Stroustrup was a pragmatist and a driver who changed the industry from the top down. The evidence of this is in the major languages used today (Java, C#). These languages can be very clearly traced to C++. So in that sense it was Stroustrup who was responsible for the fact that the industry has gone OO.

The Smalltalk subculture is still alive and well; and is showing up in many interesting new forms. The Ruby/Rails community can trace its roots directly to Smalltalk; and they are currently poised to grab a huge chunk of the industry.

So I think we will see these two competing ideas continue to struggle with each other, to the benefit of our industry. And we can thank both Kay and Stroustrup for their equal and unique contributions.

-- 
Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob)  | email: unclebob_at_objectmentor.com
Object Mentor Inc.            | blog:  www.butunclebob.com
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Received on Mon Feb 11 2008 - 17:38:25 CET

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