OOP, I thought I knew, but I didn't. Do you?

jflowers on 2003-06-23T11:45:25

I had learned how to make OOP programs. I thought I knew how to use it. I continued to still encounter many problems with maintenance, enhancements and new features. I was differently missing something important. I was following all rules, I had read many books and was following there examples, so what was the problem. Design Patterns have started to shown me what I didn't and things I maybe still don't know (I hope, I love a better way). I think it’s much like the difference between me and a painter. We both know how to use a brush, but the painter know how and why to use the brush differently for different situations. I am reading "Design Patterns Explained, A New Perspective on Object Oriented Design" by Alan Shalloway and James R. Trott. This is a great book for learning Design Patterns, it's not a collection of design patterns. This book is all about epiphanies, showing you how to think about OOP. After a few ahhas I began see a better way. I wish I had known this book existed when I was learning OOP.

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Re: OOP, I thought I knew, but I didn't. Do you

jplindstrom on 2003-06-23T19:04:41

"I wish I had known this book existed when I was learning OOP."

I'm not sure patterns are very useful when being totally new to OO. It's just too much to grasp the fundamentals, and the same time fully understand abstract object and class relationships on an even higher level. Understanding data vs behaviour-centric thinking, decoupling, modularity, information hiding, etc, etc is probably more important and fundamental than patterns.

But it sure is useful once you get the basics down.

Your reaction sound like mine when I discovered the GoF book. The next natural phase is to see patterns everywhere you go :)

If the only tool you have is a hammer
everything tends to look like a nail