Re: The Gist of Object Oriented Programming

From: Daniel T. (postmaster_at_eathlink.net)
Date: 04/22/04 

Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 12:19:39 GMT

Jeff Schwab <jeffplus@comcast.net> wrote:

> Mark A. Gibbs wrote:
> >
> > Jeff Schwab wrote:
> >
> >> If the effort is to gain the reader's interest as quickly as possible,
> >> why do you think he or she will keep reading past an opening sentence
> >> full of unfamiliar and as-yet meaningless technical terms?
> >
> > I would assume that they are reading that sentence because they intend
> > to learn what object-oriented programming is. And the idea isn't to gain
> > the reader's interest, it's to acquaint them with the concepts.
>
> I haven't assumed anything about the reader's motivation. Depending on
> context, then, either of our approaches might be more appropriate.

That is a mistake. The reader's motivation is to improve his life
("What's in it for me?",) if the "gist" doesn't speak to that
motivation, the reader will forget what he read before he's even done.

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