Xref: utzoo comp.object:2586 comp.lang.c++:11772
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ithaca!garry
From: garry@ithaca.uucp (Garry Wiegand)
Newsgroups: comp.object,comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Object-Oriented Metrics
Message-ID: <1991Feb21.073010.8592@ithaca.uucp>
Date: 21 Feb 91 07:30:10 GMT
Organization: Ithaca Software
Lines: 25

pkr@media01.UUCP (Peter Kriens) writes:
>	6. Too many classes.
>	... For example I saw
>	a class button with a Help, Shuffle and Play subclass. The
>	only thing these classes did was print their name and
>	call a procedure. This was much better if the button class
>	had an instance variable for the name and action.

I was arguing exactly this point a few days ago with a MacApp fan.
He claimed that overriding a method - by deriving a new class from
"Button" - was *exactly* the most elegant way to program menus in
MacApp C++. 

I argued that creating classes for which there would probably only
ever be one instance seemed syntactically clumsy (in C++). I argued
further that if you instead got involved with pointers-to-functions
as part of the Button instance data (as Peter suggests) then you've
fallen back into the plain-C style of being object-oriented and thus
C++ hasn't done you much good.

What's the net.religion on the subject of "too many classes" and,
for example, used-only-once menu buttons?

Garry Wiegand    ---    Ithaca Software, Alameda, California
...!uunet!ithaca!garry, garry%ithaca.uucp@uunet.uu.net


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