On Thu, 24 Oct 2002 17:46:11 -0700 Van Snyder
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> James Giles remarked that he was skeptical about "a given paradigm [whose]
> ... value has been proven beyond any point of future debate."
>
> In that vein, compare the optimistic descriptions of the benefits of C++
> with Leslie Hatton's "Does OO sync with the way we think?", which appeared
> in IEEE Software, 15(3): 46-54, November 1997.
>
> Hatton has studied the quantities and characteristics of software errors
> for many years.  One of his observations is that C++ programs have two to
> three times the "defect density" of equivalent programs written in C (89),
> Ada (83) or Fortran (77), and two to three times the cost to repair per
> defect, resulting in a sixfold increase in the cost to "own" a C++ program,
> i.e. to develop and maintain it for a reasonable time (as opposed to toys
> that you write, run and discard).
>
> His article "Does OO sync with the way we think?" gives one cause to wonder
> whether object-oriented programming support should have been put into Fortran.
> But Hatton does go on to say that the only OO framework he has studied in
> enough detail to quantify things is C++, and he's not sure whether the
> problems he's identified are caused by the OO paradigm, or its implementation
> in C++.  I think the Simula model followed in Fortran is much better than
> the C++ model, so maybe Fortran 2000 will come out better than C++ in some
> future edition of Hatton's work.
>

another source that people might have a look at is

Software Development using Eiffel, There can be life other than using
C++, Richard Weiner.

chapter 7 is entitled
  C+ && Eiffel or is it C++ & Eiffel or is it C++ and Eiffel? A clash
of Cultures,

another oo language people might like to look at is Oberon.
The text by Reiser and Wirth, Programming In Oberon does a pretty good
job of introducing the langauge and oo programming in 320 pages.
a good follow up is by mossenbeck, oop in oberon 2. that is less than
300 pages. total about 600 pages.

compare that with the majority of texts on c++. i've recently received
several c++ review copies from a number of publsihers and they way
in at 700 + pages.

i am really looking forward to the next Fortran standard.


> --
> Van Snyder                    |  What fraction of Americans believe
> [log in to unmask]     |  Wrestling is real and NASA is fake?
> Any alleged opinions are my own and have not been approved or disapproved
> by JPL, CalTech, NASA, Sean O'Keefe, George Bush, the Pope, or anybody else.

--

Ian

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