Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!cica!iuvax!kitchel
From: kitchel@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Sid Kitchel)
Newsgroups: comp.object
Subject: Re: Comments on OOP style
Message-ID: <35048@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 6 Feb 90 14:15:00 GMT
References: <135300027@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Lines: 32

johnson@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes:

>My response really didn't address the point of this complaint, though,
>which was that one class really shouldn't access very many other classes.
>The statement that one class should never access more than six other
>classes is clearly false in Smalltalk, since Number, Boolean, Block,
>String, Character, Collection, and Stream are used by most classes, so
>imposing a limit of six classes would mean that no new classes could
>be used.  

	This sounds like some theorem of Software Science, which I was
hoping was confined now to West Lafayette, Ind. exclusively. From my
point of view OO design (especially for OODBS) should emphasize a natural
capture of what is going on in the REAL situation. If you are modeling a
real-world system as a database design often must, the system itself
determines the associates of any class and the particular relationships
that a class will have. It also determines the number and nature of the
needed methods. Making arbitrary dicta a priori about "good" vs. "bad"
OO design seems futile at best, if not down right silly.
	My point also strongly applies to the debate over reusability. It
too should occur NATURALLY. You should not bend the design to obtain it.
If it occurs, let it be. But as a designer your main job is to design the
present system you are working on. Of course, I am not saying ignore
reusability -- I am only saying that the software IC metaphor is just a
metaphor, not an end in itself.

							--Sid
-- 
Sid Kitchel...........WARNING:  allergic to smileys and hearts.......
Computer Science Department		 kitchel@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
Indiana University		             skitchel@ucs.indiana.edu
Bloomington, Indiana  47405-4101...............skitchel@iubacs.BITNET