[Dev] Re: [TriLUG] Server Check-Out / In-Use-Register software

[Diana Duncan]

Oh, I so, so, so agree with you, Tanner.  One of the worst applications 
of OO is using it as a "wrapper" around relational database objects.  
There is no better guarantee of poor performance for your application.  
And yet, I'm too often called in to "tune" the database for these 
applications.  How?  Basically, the design removes all the power of 
whatever database engine you are using, and reduces the RDBMS to acting 
as a souped-up flat-file database.  Yuck.  The only way to tune that is 
to throw hardware at it, and as 80% of tuning is done via SQL, you've 
lost your most powerful tuning tool.

When cooking in the kitchen, do you use just one knife for everything, 
one pot and one burner on the stove?  Sure, you can cook like that, but 
it's limiting.  OO evangelism makes for limited, blinder-wearing 
software designers.

Diana

On Friday, May 23, 2003, at 23:55 US/Eastern, Tanner Lovelace wrote:

> On Fri, 23 May 2003, bp wrote:
>
>> What's C?  Just kidding.  I'm hoping to completely forget C as soon as
>> possible.  That way I can spend all my hours better understanding Java
>> just in time for the next great OO language to come out...
>
> <flame retardent suit on>
>
> Or, you could realize that OO isn't the end-all/be-all of programming
> paradigms and switch to a multi-paradigm language (hmm... what could
> that be..? Oh, right, C++. The most advanced language out there O:-)
>
> :-)
>
> </flame retardent suit on>
>
> Seriously, though.  OO is very often not appropriate for things.
> When it is, it works really well.  When it's not, it's like trying
> to fit the square block through the round hole.  You shouldn't
> think that one language will solve all your problems.  There are
> times when Java is a good language and times when it is not.
> Sometimes scripting languages like perl or python are the best.
> C++ is useful a lot of time.  And, if you're writing low level
> stuff like a kernel, C is most likely the appropriate language
> (but not when you're writing widget sets, for crying out loud!).
>
> If you're interested in discussing this more, btw, let's continue
> this discussion on the Trilug development list instead of
> starting yet another long, drawn out thread here on the main list.
> (See the "CC:" field above.)
>
> Cheers,
> Tanner Lovelace
> -- 
> Tanner Lovelace | lovelace@wayfarer.org | http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
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