Re: Interesting take on Paradigms (OO vs Procedural)

On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:51:12 -0500, Rick Smith wrote:

The book "Simulation Using GPSS", Thomas J. Schriber,
1974, covers the use of General Purpose Simulation System
to accomplish discrete event simulation. I find no mention of
"class", "object", or "method" in this book; thus, apparently,
these terms are not in the jargon of GPSS users. The author
uses procedural languages as a model for explaining the use
of GPSS.

And I thought I hoarded too much old stuff!

Simula and GPSS were two different things. Simula defintely had OO
concepts - I programmed it in the late 1970s. They are appropriate for the
kinds of problems Simula aimed to solve (discrete simulations).

They are just not appropriate for each and every problem. The OO paradigm
works badly when pushed too far in any of several directions. For example -
for continuous simulations and for modelling continuous functions; when
the interactions between objects are more important than the objects
themselves; when there is only one object (the "singleton" pattern); or
when the actions are more important and complex than the objects
themselves.

Tim
.