Re: Web apps on the AS/400 -- MIDRANGE-L

Well, Joe,
I'm not going to trivialize OO, OO is in fact wonderful and powerful.
The *only* real point I have is when you say all the time "that cannot
be done (easily) any other way" that you are overstating your case.

> This is where we're going to have to differ.  You either don't understand
> OO, or you're purposely trivializing it.  The point of my argument is that
> if one class does a bunch of stuff and uses a second class, referring to it
> by interface, and then you substitute a different class that still adheres
> to the interface, you can change the output of the first class without
> changing the code.  That is a beautiful simplicity and elegance that is
> difficult to achieve any other way.  If you don't see it, then this
> discussion has no further merit for either of us, or I'm sure for anyone
> else on this list.

as long as you respect the interface everything will work the same
in Java as with any other language. The important thing is the
INTERFACE, not the language. For this we do not NEED Java,
but it is of course nice that Java enforces this.

>
> I'm saddened and disappointed by your attitude.  You have to be purposely
> missing the points here.  Multiple entry points in a polymorphic class are
> not "non-structured".  I/O modules are not classes.  Writing a new "do_it"
> is not polymorphism

polymorphism is not all that great a concept. It simply boils down to
supplying the data type together with the data. Even old ALGOL had
that: if you did specify the formal parameters for a procedure the
compiler was supposed to generate code to treat the type you
actually called it with appropriately. The concept was later abandoned
as impractical from a programmers point of view. The ultimate
case was PL/1 where almost an6ything was legal because the
compiler would "know" how to deal with different data types, even
if they were just a mistake on part of the programmer.

Again, I'm not trying to trivialize OO. I'm trying to find a way of
showing people that most of it is not all that different from what
they already understand. The finer points where OO is fundamentally
different can come later. The mistake you make is the tout these
finer point up front, where they just put people off because they are
"too alien".

.




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