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From: Matthew Heaney <matthew_heaney@acm.org>
Subject: Re: Naming of Tagged Types and Associated Packages
Date: 1998/08/08
Date: 1998-08-08T00:00:00+00:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <m3n29glfpj.fsf@mheaney.ni.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: Pine.BSF.3.96.980807163858.838A-100000@shell5.ba.best.com

Brian Rogoff <bpr@shell5.ba.best.com> writes:

> The truth is I don't think I'll use Eiffel again, because I don't think 
> its a very good language design. I think OO is overrated, and languages
> that try to enforce OO as the *only* programming tool are not for me.

You sometimes hear Ada refered to as "a 70's language."  I sometimes
think of Eiffel as "an 80's language," since it forces one to program
using a "pure" object-oriented paradigm.  What's so great about "pure"
object-oriented programming, anyway?

Not having done any programming in Eiffel, I'm not going to comment on
the design of that language, but I agree that object-oriented
programming is only one tool among many that a programmer should have at
his disposal.

The OO hype left over from the 80's hasn't quite subsided, but the tide
is turning.  People are finally beginning to realize that using (public)
inheritence to compose abstractions creates too many dependencies, which
can stymie the growth of a large system in development.

Indeed, the debates about the "proper" taxonomy for an inheritence tree
are redolent of the debates we had in the 70's about what the "proper"
decomposition of functions should be.  This is ironic, since the
object-oriented paradigm was intended to silence those debates!

Creating deep (public) inheritence hierarchies, though typical in "pure
OO" languages, is definately not a technique that should be used in
Ada95 or C++, where objects have value semantics.  Another thread on
this list has alluded to the better way, using "closed" abstractions
that use inheritence as a private, implementation mechanism.





  reply	other threads:[~1998-08-08  0:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 138+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
1998-07-16  0:00 Naming of Tagged Types and Associated Packages taashlo
1998-07-25  0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-25  0:00   ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-07-25  0:00     ` Brian Rogoff
1998-07-26  0:00       ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-26  0:00     ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-26  0:00       ` nabbasi
1998-07-26  0:00         ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-26  0:00         ` Robert Dewar
1998-07-27  0:00       ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-07-28  0:00         ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-28  0:00           ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-07-28  0:00             ` dennison
1998-07-29  0:00               ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-07-29  0:00                 ` dennison
1998-07-29  0:00                   ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-07-30  0:00                     ` dennison
1998-07-30  0:00                       ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-07-29  0:00         ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-07-30  0:00           ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-30  0:00           ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-07-30  0:00             ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-07-31  0:00               ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-07-31  0:00                 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-08-01  0:00                   ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-08-04  0:00                     ` Matthew Heaney
1998-08-04  0:00                       ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-08-10  0:00                         ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-07-27  0:00       ` dennison
1998-07-27  0:00         ` Stephen Leake
1998-07-27  0:00           ` dennison
1998-07-27  0:00             ` Brian Rogoff
1998-07-28  0:00               ` dennison
1998-07-28  0:00                 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-07-28  0:00                   ` dennison
1998-07-29  0:00                     ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-29  0:00                       ` Chris Brand
1998-07-30  0:00                         ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-30  0:00                           ` dennison
1998-07-30  0:00                             ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-30  0:00                               ` dennison
1998-08-01  0:00                           ` Simon Wright
1998-08-02  0:00                             ` Matthew Heaney
1998-08-03  0:00                               ` dennison
1998-08-03  0:00                                 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-08-04  0:00                                   ` dennison
1998-08-04  0:00                               ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-08-04  0:00                                 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-08-05  0:00                               ` Don Harrison
1998-08-05  0:00                                 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-08-07  0:00                                   ` Don Harrison
1998-08-13  0:00                                     ` Robert A Duff
1998-08-14  0:00                                       ` Don Harrison
1998-08-14  0:00                                       ` adam
1998-08-05  0:00                                 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-08-07  0:00                                   ` Don Harrison
1998-08-07  0:00                                   ` doylep
1998-08-07  0:00                                     ` Brian Rogoff
1998-08-08  0:00                                       ` Matthew Heaney [this message]
1998-08-10  0:00                                       ` doylep
1998-08-10  0:00                                         ` Brian Rogoff
1998-08-10  0:00                                           ` John Volan
1998-08-10  0:00                                           ` John Volan
1998-08-11  0:00                                           ` doylep
1998-08-11  0:00                                             ` Brian Rogoff
1998-08-13  0:00                                               ` Robert A Duff
1998-08-13  0:00                                                 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-09-01  0:00                                                 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-09-01  0:00                                                   ` Dale Stanbrough
1998-09-01  0:00                                                     ` Matthew Heaney
1998-09-01  0:00                                                       ` Bob Collins
1998-09-02  0:00                                                         ` Matthew Heaney
1998-09-04  0:00                                                       ` John G. Volan
1998-08-11  0:00                                         ` Don Harrison
1998-08-11  0:00                                           ` Pat Rogers
1998-08-11  0:00                                             ` Don Harrison
1998-09-01  0:00                                               ` Matthew Heaney
1998-08-13  0:00                                         ` Robert A Duff
1998-08-13  0:00                                           ` Brian Rogoff
1998-08-15  0:00                                             ` Don Harrison
1998-08-15  0:00                                               ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-08-18  0:00                                                 ` Don Harrison
1998-08-14  0:00                                           ` Don Harrison
1998-08-17  0:00                                             ` doylep
1998-08-19  0:00                                               ` Don Harrison
1998-08-12  0:00                                       ` Don Harrison
1998-08-08  0:00                                     ` Matthew Heaney
1998-08-08  0:00                                       ` John G. Volan
1998-08-09  0:00                                         ` Matthew Heaney
1998-08-10  0:00                                           ` John G. Volan
1998-08-11  0:00                                             ` Don Harrison
1998-08-11  0:00                                               ` geoff
1998-08-11  0:00                                             ` John Volan
1998-08-31  0:00                                             ` Matthew Heaney
1998-08-31  0:00                                               ` Tucker Taft
1998-09-06  0:00                                                 ` John G. Volan
1998-09-06  0:00                                                   ` Matthew Heaney
1998-09-04  0:00                                               ` John G. Volan
1998-09-05  0:00                                                 ` John G. Volan
1998-09-06  0:00                                                   ` Matthew Heaney
1998-09-06  0:00                                                 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-09-04  0:00                                               ` John G. Volan
1998-09-06  0:00                                                 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-09-06  0:00                                                   ` John G. Volan
1998-09-06  0:00                                                   ` John G. Volan
1998-09-06  0:00                                                     ` Brian Rogoff
1998-09-06  0:00                                                       ` John G. Volan
1998-09-07  0:00                                                         ` Brian Rogoff
1998-09-07  0:00                                                           ` John G. Volan
1998-09-16  0:00                                                             ` Matthew Heaney
1998-09-04  0:00                                               ` John G. Volan
1998-09-05  0:00                                                 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-09-05  0:00                                                   ` John G. Volan
1998-09-05  0:00                                               ` John G. Volan
1998-09-05  0:00                                               ` John G. Volan
1998-08-11  0:00                                       ` doylep
1998-08-05  0:00                           ` Static Polymorphism (Was Re: Naming of Tagged Types...) Brian Rogoff
1998-08-06  0:00                             ` Matthew Heaney
1998-08-06  0:00                               ` Brian Rogoff
1998-07-28  0:00                   ` Naming of Tagged Types and Associated Packages Brian Rogoff
1998-07-29  0:00                     ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-29  0:00                       ` Brian Rogoff
1998-07-28  0:00             ` Norman H. Cohen
1998-07-28  0:00               ` Stephen Leake
1998-07-28  0:00               ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-28  0:00         ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-28  0:00           ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-07-28  0:00             ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-28  0:00               ` dennison
1998-07-29  0:00                 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-07-30  0:00                 ` Robert Dewar
1998-07-30  0:00                   ` Matthew Heaney
1998-08-06  0:00         ` Robert A Duff
1998-08-06  0:00           ` Matthew Heaney
1998-08-06  0:00             ` Tucker Taft
1998-08-31  0:00               ` Matthew Heaney
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1998-07-26  0:00 tmoran
1998-07-27  0:00 ` dennison
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