Re: CoBOL moved to OO

From: Judson McClendon (judmc_at_sunvaley0.com)
Date: 12/23/03 

Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 17:24:28 GMT

"Peter E.C. Dashwood" <dashwood@enternet.co.nz> wrote:
>
> But you are arguing with people who have no idea what they're talking about,
> have never been involved in successful OO implementation, do not understand
> the basic fundamentals, (witness Judson's post equating "iterative" to
> "procedural"), and are resisting to the last ditch anything that looks like
> it might threaten their comfortable little world, predicated on "What we
> know", "What we have always done", and "Best practice (as we perceive
> it)...".

You cannot be referring to me, because I have a completely different
set of reasons for objecting to an "OO and nothing else" mentality. I
have said before, and I reiterate, simply show me some statistical data
that show an *across the board* improvement in development time,
development costs, maintenance costs and training costs, and I will be
happy to endorse an *across the board* move to OO. Without that, you
argue simply from personal opinion, as you accuse others of doing.
Within 10 years after structured techniques were in use, I could have
buried you under tons of such statistics in support of structured
techniques. Structured techniques were clearly and decisively superior
to previous techniques in every measurable way, except possibly in
total lines of code. In fact, contrary to the trend we discuss, significant
such data was available BEFORE the push toward structured. Now,
after much longer trials, I have yet to see any such objective data to
confirm a wholesale move toward OO. Perhaps I've been overlooking
it, so kindly point me to it. :-)

Please note that none of the above involves "understanding the basic
concepts", "resisting to the last ditch", threatening any "comfortable
little world", or any "supposed knowledge". If OO is as good as you
say, then fine, show me the statistical data to back it up, based on
data obtained from real world projects. Considering the truly vast
expenditures in money and manpower that have been invested in a
wholesale move toward OO, everyone should be constantly tripping
over such data, because investing that kind of resources in anything
less than clearly demonstrably superior is, as I have been saying,
nuts. :-) 

-- 
Judson McClendon      judmc@sunvaley0.com (remove zero)
Sun Valley Systems     http://sunvaley.com
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."