Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!acw!guthery
From: guthery@acw.com (Scott Guthery)
Newsgroups: comp.object
Subject: #define CLAIMS TRUE
Message-ID: <31.UUL1.3#913@acw.com>
Date: 4 Feb 90 05:14:19 GMT
Organization: Austin Code Works
Lines: 34

In a recent posting, Dan Weinreb argues essentially that since
controlled experiments to test validity of the claims made for
object-oriented would be so expensive these claims must be taken to
be true until contrary evidence is presented.  When presented with
such evidence ... the CAD/CAM disaster at MCC, for example ...
Weinreb argues out of the other side of his mouth that since the
experiment wasn't controlled no inferences can be drawn from it.

I'm not sure where the alternative reality is in which the all the
claims for object-oriented programming are true but I am sure that
neither I nor any of the programmers I know live or work there.  My
first and second hand experience over the last five years is that
when applied without discipline object-oriented techniques yield
gratuitious complexity and full employment for programmers and little
else.  The kicker is that no one seems be willing or able to describe
the discipline that must be applied to make it otherwise.

IMHO it's time that software development methodology was based on
solid empiricism rather than the chant-of-the-day.  Failed fads
are becoming a noticable litter on the programming landscape.

							Cheers, Scott
 

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