RE: OO and Procedural Work Units (was switch string)

I have done real ILE work, and I think that you have the basic facts
straight, but don't miss out on the fact that one's procedures (functions,
classes, whatever your favourite term) can and should be cross-application.

I fight every day to get programmers to stop thinking about "this program"
or "this problem" but to expect that somebody else could use the routine.
Broaden one's outlook, so to speak.  It takes only a little more time to
make the function more generic and the payback can be huge.

Also, there's a giant benefit in the maintenance department to write code as
many small functions.  Debugging time is greatly reduced because you can
comprehend the function easily.  Because the I/O is handled as parameters,
you can be 100% certain that code changes won't break other code.  That's a
huge plus.

Having more objects in an application means that one needs a good library so
one can readily look them up, but this problem exists in monolithic
procedural code as well.  "I know there's credit checking code in AR005, so
I'll just use SEU to copy it into this program I'm working on..."  You know
the drill.  Once one builds one's "library" of debugged functions, all one
need know is the function name and parameter list and Bob's your uncle!

In ILE, to build a new application one includes all the functions required,
glues them together with some IF/ELSE logic and Wham!  The OO philosophy
appears to be different because one can extend an existing "function"
without messing with the existing function's code.  That's the leap I'm
struggling with right now.

Buck 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stone, Brad V (TC) 
> 
> I can see how one could take OO too far though, as you mentioned.  These
> examples, while doing a great job of explaining OO, also show that if you
> were to take something more complex, such as a work order, you could
> really
> overdo it.  In other words, these examples are great, but lets now apply
> it
> to a real world business programming situation for the benifit of those
> that
> want to take it a step further.  These would be much more intense and I
> could see how it would go so far as to be more confusing that it's worth.
> 
> I'd love to hear other's opinions on this, especially anyone who's done
> production Java and RPG/ILE (real ILE) programming on similar systems.
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