Re: RPG,COBOL or JAVA -- MIDRANGE-L

Hello Buck,

Well, actually I don't think you are confused.  Hans has some valid points with 
regard to inheritance but 
that is just one aspect to the OO paradigm (Yes, got that word in again!).

Other fundamental aspects of OO are encapsulation, isolation, and abstraction.  
All of which RPG IV does 
better than the previous incarnations of RPG.  So, learning RPG _WILL_ help you 
with these concepts and that 
can ease the learning of the other OO specific aspects like inheritance and 
polymorphism.

OO is much more a design philosophy, and while an environment which supports 
all the above aspects is nice, 
it is possible to apply OO concepts to any programming language if _YOU_ are 
sufficiently disciplined.  It is 
also possible to write monolithic non-OO programs in Java, Smalltalk, Object 
Pascal, or any other programming 
language.

There are other concepts which translate well: methods => procedures; classes 
=> modules; packages => 
programs.  I know that is not entirely correct and certainly the OO purists 
would have you believe otherwise 
but I have never subscribed to the belief that to do OO requires you to discard 
all the carefully honed 
expertise you may have developed in procedural coding.  OO is really not 
radically different.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.

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//--- forwarded letter -------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 08 Dec 98 11:42:16 -0500
> From: "Buck Calabro/commsof" <mcalabro@commsoft.net>
> To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Reply-To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Subject: Re: RPG,COBOL or JAVA

> >Buck Calabro wrote:
> >>I think that this is very well said.  An aside is
> >>that RPG IV/ILE RPG can help you learn OO while
> >>you work, rather than have to learn OO AND a new
> >>language AND a new environment (GUI) all at the
> >>same time.
> >
> >I have to disagree with this.  New features of
> >RPG IV, such as prototyped procedures, allow you
> >to apply the technique of "modular programming",
> 
> -snip-
> 
> >To summarize my point:  Inheritance is a very
> >fundamental characteristic of OO programming and
> >cannot be fully appreciated without experiencing
> >OO.  Using a non-OO language, like RPG IV, can
> >never prepare you for OO.
> 
> Thanks, Hans!
> I was definitely confused.
> I see that I seriously need to visit my bookstore
> and get some more education...
> Sometimes it's depressing seeing just how far
> behind one can be from the "real world."  Oh,
> well -- better a wake up call than a pink slip!
> 
> Buck Calabro
> mailto:mcalabro@commsoft.net

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