Re: Confessions of an "OO Foreigner"

From: LX-i (lxi0007_at_netscape.net)
Date: 12/30/03 

Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 21:09:49 -0600

(there is a reply down there somewhere....)

William M. Klein wrote:
> INVOKE specific-object-reference-data-item specific-method-name
> USING various-parameter-by-CONTENT/REFERENCE/VALUE
> RETURNING returned-value-data-item
>
...
> INVOKE method-name UPON object-reference-name USING ...
>
> Well, I lost <G> that battle and we ended up with INVOKE object-reference. Once
> we had "object-reference" as the object (grammatical usage) of the INVOKE verb,
> then I though we AT LEAST should have an OPTIONAL keyword explaining "what"
> (adverbial) we wanted to do with this "second" thing, the method-name. What I
> wanted was something like
>
> INVOKE object-reference <WITH> method-name USING ....
>
> Well, I lost <G> that battle and we ended up with two "nouns" following the
> INVOKE verb - with two VERY different meanings and no preposition between them.
> As far as I know, this is the ONLY time this exists in COBOL (which is English
> like) and totally (IMHO) obscures what the INVOKE statement does!!!

I'm with you. Other languages use something like
    return-value = object.method(parameters)

I'm surprised they didn't say
INVOKE method-name OF object-name ...

This utilizes a very familiar COBOL construct, which is used to uniquely
identify data items.

Any of you savvier OO guys know of a reason that that wouldn't make more
sense? 

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~   /   \  /         ~        Live from Montgomery, AL!       ~
~  /     \/       o  ~                                        ~
~ /      /\   -   |  ~          LXi0007@Netscape.net          ~
~ _____ /  \      |  ~ http://www.knology.net/~mopsmom/daniel ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~         I do not read e-mail at the above address           ~
~    Please see website if you wish to contact me privately   ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Confessions of an "OO Foreigner"
    ... >> INVOKE verb, ... >> then I though we AT LEAST should have an OPTIONAL keyword explaining ... >> like) and totally obscures what the INVOKE statement does!!! ... > This utilizes a very familiar COBOL construct, ...
    (comp.lang.cobol)
  • Re: Confessions of an "OO Foreigner"
    ... Other languages use something like ... >> This utilizes a very familiar COBOL construct, ... would you simply invoke the object? ...
    (comp.lang.cobol)