Re: Difference between inheritance and package use

[marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us (Marco S Hyman)]

In article <1991Jun23.030631.8027@netcom.COM> jls@netcom.COM (Jim Showalter) writes:
 > Indeed. The problem with this is, if I'm trying to build a damned TRACTOR,
 > why on earth would I want to have to drag around the entire tree of Things
 > That Move Through Spacetime just to do so? Yes yes yes--I understand the
 > notion of reuse, but I can reuse pistons and wristpins and all the
 > subcomponents used to build a tractor (this, last time I looked, was sort
 > of how most stuff WAS built), so in what way is this better or worse?

You're right.  You don't want to drag around the entire tree ...  I assume (oh
ohh) that you're getting the components for your TRACTOR from a library.
Building a library is hard.  Check out "Designing C++ Libraries" in the USENIX
C++ Conference Proceedings, San Francisco, 1990, by James M. Coggins.  I thing
the points he makes are somewhat language independent.  In particular, that
comprehensive, monolithic class libraries are a bad thing AND that a toolkit
of tiny classes is also a bad thing.

I can read "PACKAGE" for "class."  Something in between is needed.

// marc
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