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

["Stone, Brad V (TC)" <bvstone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree 100%.  Whenever someone asks me how they should do an ILE procedure
for a project, a lot of the time they walk away with 5 instead of 1 because
I too like to break them down to the smallest common denominator.

I guess my main struggle is getting existing relational databases and
systems and "converting" them over the OO.  They don't seem to fight just
right all the time.  So, either you end up redoing your DB structure or
sacrificing some of the strengths of OO to "force" it to work.  I admint I'm
still wet behind the ears but for me it seems if you were to follow all of
the OO rules the initial developement time seems like it would be much
greater.  This isn't bad at all.  But, do we have 2 years to do it?  That's
my point.

Brad

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Buck Calabro [mailto:buck.calabro@aptissoftware.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 1:44 PM
> To: JAVA400-L@midrange.com
> Subject: 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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