Re: back to: improving rpg. was: what is object oriented programming

As always, Hans illuminates.  Thank you Hans. 
 
"But please please please, let's discuss features on their own merits, and
not just because there's a belief that some particular feature is OO. " 
Here I'd hope we wouldn't throw constraints onto the topic.  
 
Even the requests are helpful to the learning process.  The whole concept of
OO has never gotten through so these discussions are  helping to define the
concept to me.  What is the difference between OO and black boxing? As with
Date fields and adddur and subdur for example.  .It'd seem to me that adding
1 year, 2 months, and 6 days to February 27th and getting the correct answer
back even in a leap year is about as OO as one can get?
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Booth Martin   http://www.MartinVT.com
Booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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-------Original Message-------
 
From: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Date: Thursday, May 08, 2003 07:37:24
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: back to: improving rpg. was: what is object oriented
programming
 
 
...
 
Regarding adding OO features into RPG, here's something I've noticed 
(and I may well be totally off-base on this). When people ask for 
particular specific features, they seem to be features not specific 
to OO per se, but rather to the realm of "modular programming". Or 
rather, to the realm of just plain good programming practice.
 
For example, defining "get" and "set" methods to access particular 
pieces of data within an "object" isn't really a part of OO. While 
it's a technique commonly used in certain OO languages, 
"encapsulation" is more an aspect of "modular programming".
 
What's my point? Discussing how RPG IV can or should be improved is 
a good topic for discussion. But please please please, let's discuss 
features on their own merits, and not just because there's a belief 
that some particular feature is OO. The latter simply re-inforces 
the idea that OO is just some buzz-word.
 
A more productive discussion, though, might be how to adopt the 
lessons of modular and OO programming in *current* RPG programming.
 
Cheers! Hans