Newsgroups: comp.object,comp.lang.smalltalk
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!uunet!rcm!rmartin
From: rmartin@rcmcon.com (Robert Martin)
Subject: Re: Teaching OO
References: <1994Dec26.162401.6570@rcmcon.com> <RFR0lOfN33q2071yn@IIA> <AKV.95Jan8184845@srl03.usl.edu> <3erled$1u29@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net> <AKV.95Jan12181000@srl03.usl.edu> <3f4q0v$jff@nova.umd.edu> <1995Jan13.154149.4286@rcmcon.com> <3f6api$2k5f@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net>
Organization: R. C. M. Consulting Inc. 708-918-1004
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 16:56:52 GMT
Message-ID: <1995Jan14.165652.4469@rcmcon.com>
Lines: 41
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.object:25047 comp.lang.smalltalk:19539

bfelton@ibm.net writes:

>What does the world look like to you?  It sure looks like objects to me...
>How is this simplistic?  Any of the significant philosophies have been
>essentiall "object oriented" (saving perhaps only Bergson and Whitehead,
>who were significantly process oriented...)

It is easier for me to describe what the world does *not* look like to
me.  It does *not* look like a collection of data structures and
algorithms passing messages to each other through polymorphic abstract
interfaces.  I cannot completely describe a "rock" for example, as a
set of interfaces, data structures, and algorithms.

rmartin said:
>>Nor is it possible to model the world in an OO context.  Only very
>>small pieces of the world are subject to such modeling.

>I think you will have an incredibly difficult time substantiating this,
>but I would like to see an argument supporting it, rather than the
>bare assertion.

OK, model a human being in an OO context;  be accurate and complete.

>>The world is complicated.  OO can be used to manage some of that
>>complexity, in certain contexts. 

>Where does it fail?

It fails to model non-deterministic problems.  It is inefficient for
modeling very small problems.  It does not work well for modeling
problems which are comprised of many different little applications
operationg an a single huge reservoir of data.  There are probably
other scenarios as well.



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