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From: brugge@fss.UUCP (John Brugge)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: OOP--What do you think?
Message-ID: <14@fss.UUCP>
Date: 13 Apr 91 16:49:03 GMT
References: <1991Apr10.210516.25812@rice.edu> <712@gate.oxy.edu>
Reply-To: brugge@fss.Ems.MN.ORG (John Brugge)
Organization: IDS Financial Services, Mpls., MN
Lines: 44

In article <712@gate.oxy.edu> schorsch@oxy.edu writes:
>In article <1991Apr10.210516.25812@rice.edu> koops@elf.rice.edu (Ryan Richard
>Koopmans) writes:
>>What I want to know is, is OOP the wave of the future in
>>programming or just a passing fad?  Is it worth learning
>>a new way of programming just to use the TCL?
>>
>>Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I like the straight procedural
>>way.  In all the message passing and things, I feel that the
>>programmer gets too far away from the machine and works on a
>>too abstract level.
>>
>>What do you think?
>>

For the solitary programmer working alone on a (relatively) small program
for a specific machine where running lean and mean is the highest design
priority, the benefits of OOP may be obscured.

BUT, if you're developing a more complex system, with a number of programmers
involved, and the system may still be living and growing when you're no longer
around, then the paradigm (what a great word) of object-oriented development
has some more tangible rewards: support for encapsulation and data abstraction,
class libraries (e.g. TCL and MacApp on the Mac) that give you a head start
and a foundation on which to build, and possibly even platform indepedence
(e.g. Objectworks/Smalltalk that runs unaltered on Macs, Windows & X systems).

In the current world, this doesn't come free, however; there's some overhead,
in terms of code size and speed, but I'd like to think that that is less
important (to a degree; nobody wants a dog program, but I often find that I'm
the limiting speed factor in using a program, not the program). And personally,
I'd just as soon be as far away from the machine as I can when programming -
I'm awaiting the day when I can write a significant Mac program without having  
to know anything about A7, or whether my handles are locked or unlocked, etc.

With the variety of applications being found for computers today and tomorrow,
the premium will be on analysis, design and adaptability - ideas which an OO
mindset encourages (although doesn't enforce). There's nothing magic about OOP,
just another way of looking at the world that can give better insights and
payoffs in certain situations.

John Brugge