Re: What is wrong with OO ?

[Jeff Miller <jmiller@probe.net>]

Kazimir Majorinc wrote:
> 
> \x1eTansel Ersavas (tansel@deep.net) wrote:
> 
> : 1. "The cancelled projects with money down the drain" is not a part
> : of the OO problem, but a general IS one. I know two 100  million
> : projects : cancelled after 5 years of great hopes, money and sweat,
> : and they weren't OO projects. Every year, hundreds of BILLIONS of
> : dollars are
> 
> Ubelievable. For that money I could do anything they want. Simulation
> of whole world economy? No problem! Programming language more
> complicated than C++? No problem! I do not understand? I can not
> imagine problem which can not be solved with that money, except if it
> comes from mathematical world.

Near the beginning of "The Mythical Man Month" an interesting
observation is made: Since we so often hear about the stunning 
success of one or two programmers working at the kitchen table,
why is it that all software is not written that way? Why is it that
corporations continue to build these crazy, wasteful, failure-prone
development departments when all they really needed to do was stuff
a couple of talented programmers in a garage for a few months?

There are lots of reasons, and I would refer the interested reader
to the book (something *anyone* in software development should read!),
I won't go into it here, but the details have to do with the geometric
growth of communication paths while the staff count is increasing
linearly.

Anyway, you would be amazed at how easy it is to tear through $100
million. Most commercial software projects are not of the nature you
implied. Problems like developing compilers and writing simulations
are nicely contained. The big dollar projects you hear about tend
to have enormous user interfaces, potentially hundreds of database
tables, be distributed on a global basis, involve complex communication
and coordination requirements, and require the sort of confirmed
reliability associated with computer systems that are managing millions
and sometimes of billions of dollars.

                                             Jeff Miller
                                             Senior Server Architect
                                             CSG Systems, Inc.
                                             jeff_miller@csgsys.com
                                             jmiller@probe.net