From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 109fba,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 11cae8,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid11cae8,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: fac41,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public From: heller@utdallas.edu (Steve Heller) Subject: Re: What is wrong with OO ? Date: 1996/12/10 Message-ID: <58jk0p$4@news.utdallas.edu>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 203309803 references: <32A4659D.347A@shef.ac.uk> <32A71BC6.2D857063@arscorp.com> <32A82AFE.255A@possibility.com> <58bq8c$3n6@news.utdallas.edu> <32ABCB1F.5207@possibility.com> organization: The University of Texas at Dallas newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.ada,comp.lnag.java,comp.object,comp.software-eng Date: 1996-12-10T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Todd Hoff wrote: >Steve Heller wrote: >> If I invented an electron microscope and 90% of people couldn't use >> it, would we blame the electron microscope or the people? In other >> words, the complexity of the job that the tool needs to do matters as >> well. >The analogy doesn't hold as an electron microscope is a specialized >tool. OO is not supposed to be a specialized tool but a general >methodology for designing and implementing software systems. All programming is difficult. Programming is a specialized task, which implies the need for specialized tools. Designing good libraries is even more difficult than writing good programs, and it requires talents in addition to those needed for application programming. Therefore, library design should be done primarily by specialists. This will make the job of the application programmer easier, not harder. >> Or maybe it's just taught poorly. I've been pretty successful in >> teaching OOP to people who don't know it already. >Or the flip side, why is it so hard to learn? And if it >really takes top teachers working over extended periods >of time with individual students to learn OO what is the chance >of it being taught properly in the large? I haven't had an "extended period" to teach OO, if by that you mean more than a couple of months. Of course, the students will have to apply what they learn in the real world in order to be truly fluent with their new knowledge, but this is true of any applied field. However, the necessity for good teachers is a real constraint, since it appears that many "OO teachers" don't understand it very well themselves. Another part of the problem is poor textbooks that don't give enough background and depth so that the students can really grasp the fundamentals; I'm doing what I can to fix that. Steve Heller, author and software engineer http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/steve_heller