Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!mcnc!thorin!piglet!coggins
From: coggins@piglet.cs.unc.edu (Dr. James Coggins)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Managing C++ Libraries: C++ too complex !!
Message-ID: <5278@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Date: 12 Nov 88 15:51:39 GMT
References: <179@tityus.UUCP> <5217@thorin.cs.unc.edu> <184@tityus.UUCP>
Sender: news@thorin.cs.unc.edu
Reply-To: coggins@cs.unc.edu (Dr. James Coggins)
Organization: University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Lines: 79


	> (This tirade cuts close to home. You are a bit out of line here.)
	> (and it's "Ph.D.")
	
		My comment about Ph.D.'s (sp -- stand corrected) was NOT
	intended to be derogatory in any way, shape or form.

I regretted turning up the burners on this soon after I posted the reply.
I shouldn't have let it tick me off the way it did.

        What it was
	questioning is the intelligence level that is required for a person to
	utlize the task [tool?] at hand.  Although it would be fantastic for more
	people to have higher intelligence this is not always the case. Hence
	an increase in the base level of intelligence for a person to
	comprehend and use any given tool reduces the set of people that can
	use the tool.

        [some examples deleted]

Aha! now I see where we differ.
I think you are associating "intelligence of the user" with
"ability to use a crummy user interface", which is a serious
error.  The Mac has a unified interface based on a simple
and pervasive metaphor.  This beautiful design is what makes it so
easy to learn, not the intelligence or lack thereof in the user
community. Even Ph.D.s (especially Ph.D.'s?) find the Mac easier to
use than the PC. Being able to use a PC does not indicate superior
intelligence, but it might indicate motivation, hard work, time on
your hands, ... .

The problem is not in ourselves, but in our software user interfaces.

		The point that I was trying to make is that some people may be
	able to pickup and understand the C++ language easily, but most
	average programmers will not. I think that there are many things that
	could be done to make an integrated C++ environment better, but
	raising the "membership dues" of intelligence does not help to broaden
	the usage of the language.

I can agree that learning to use C++ effectively is challenging right
now, but this is not the fault of the language and not an indication of
a C++ Programmer Master Race. The problem is that we lack educational
materials right now.  Just like when structured programming came out.
The Ph.D.s had to figure out what SP really meant and what it could
do, then the educational material appeared, and now we don't preach SP
any more because it is accepted from the beginning.  Object-Oriented
design is proceeding the same way.  C++ has found explosive acceptance
even though the language is still evolving because OOP clearly is an
improvement in technique.  We Ph.D.s are working out what OOP really
is and how to use it. The educational material has not yet appeared.
You business types have jumped on the right bandwagon (and you
are to be congratulated on your forward-looking management decisions), 
but being in the forefront has certain tradeoffs.  Getting there
before the educational material has been developed is one of them.
In sum, when we get some reasonable teaching material out there, Joe
Average Programmer will have no trouble learning OOD or C++.

		I find it difficult to read code that uses calls where the
	parameters may or may not be changed in the calling procedure. Also,
	if functions can come from any base class, and the resulting code
	executed can differ depending on the specific type of parameters
	passed, it results in a more "multi-dimensional" understanding of what
	a call is going to do. Basicially, there is a lot more, in terms of
	underlying behavior, that can be happening in a C++ program. You may
	not always be aware of it.

Part of the necessary tool set for a C++ programming environment is a
"class browser" that would ease or eliminate these problems that I
agree can be annoying.  The research community is fully aware of them
and there are people working on such tools now. (those of you working on
such tools are encouraged to edit the subject line and jump right in)
	
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Dr. James M. Coggins          coggins@cs.unc.edu
Computer Science Department   
UNC-Chapel Hill               Not a member of the putative 
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3175    C++ Master Race.
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