*BSD News Article 94064


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From: JYoungman@vggas.com (James Youngman)
Newsgroups: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Linux or FreeBSD (or something else?)
Date: 21 Apr 1997 15:49:17 GMT
Organization: VG Gas Analysis Systems
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References: <slrn5kaf5t.11r.c_chaos@chaosnet.wahnapitae.on.ca> <3345FD90.4A3@kashmir.net> <5ipv9f$itd$1@halcyon.com> <5iqpqu$kfm$1@hecate.umd.edu> <5j73kd$pbe$1@halcyon.com>
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In article <5j73kd$pbe$1@halcyon.com>, tzs@halcyon.com says...

>What I find kind of funny is that programmers will spend a lot of effort
>designing objects or modules (or whatever the unit of encapsulation is
>in the language they are using) so as to hide from other objects or modules
>or whatever the need to understand how they work, but then when it is time
>to think of their program as a whole, the whole idea of modules or objects
>or whatever goes down the toilet, and they stick on some stupid interface
>that expects the user to understand how the program works in order to use
>it.  If they would just keeping thinking in object oriented terms a little
>bit longer, they'd realize that the user should only have to know *what*
>the program does, not *how* it does it.

Many programmers think of the programs they produce as tools whereas users 
often think of them computer as a whole and, at that, as something more like a 
television or an iron than a drill, swiss army knife, or welder.

-- 
James Youngman       VG Gas Analysis Systems  The trouble with the rat-race 
Before sending advertising material, read     is, even if you win, you're 
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/47/227.html         still a rat.