Re: What makes Java so special?

Hi, Chris

At 10:29 PM 12/3/97 PDT, you wrote:
>** Reply to note from Vernon Hamberg <hambergv@goldengate.net> Mon, 01 Dec
1997 13:33:09 -0600
>
>> Don't forget polymorphism, which, along with inheritance, gives the
>> ability to have different methods of the same name and with different
>> arguments. This can be the basis for multiple system access in a server
>> each additional platform is not a matter of having "to re-write the
>> blasted things" rather, a matter of adding to what already exists.
>
>Vernon, I think it's tough to discuss polymorphism with people who aren't
>familiar with OO design. It's tough to think of a collection of dissimilar
>objects and invoking the same method call on them all when you aren't sure
>what an object is. 
>
>Polymorphism is the cornerstone of extention for classes. It is key to the
>ability to code new classes extending old ones. While it facilitates what is
>necessary to OO programming, I don't think it can be considered to be a
>"purpose" of OO coding. 

If that's what I said, it was not I meant. I meant that Buck might consider
polymorphism as a way, on a middle-tier server, to distinguish the calls to
diverse backend platforms. Polymorphism, along with data-hiding
(encapsulation) and inheritance, are means, not ends—tools, not final
products.

>> This has intrinsically _nothing_ to do with Java qua Java. Sun never
>> promised to deliver what you're talking about, I think. Java is a
>> _language_, and that's all. The output of its compiler, according to Sun
>
>Java is more than a language. Java includes the JVM which is a very
>important factor in what Java offers us. 

Definite oversimplification on my part, an attempt make a clear distinction.

>But I think it's important to clarify the differences between the two. While
>the JVM overs wonderful platform independance, it has nothing to do with OO
>coding. OO coding will advance programming light years, but has nothing to
>do with portability.

Exactly—it's so easy to get terms confused in this unfamiliar territory.
I'm gung-ho about the possibilities of OO, but it's a quite a paradigm
shift at the start of things. There was, for me, a point where it just
occurred to me that OO really expressed the way I've always wanted to work
in design and didn't even know it.

Happy holidays!

Vernon Hamberg
Systems Software Programmer
Old Republic National Title Insurance Company
400 Second Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55401
(612) 371-1111 x480


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