Reaction for: "Object-Oriented Programming" by Jon
Well, this is certainly a reading that I have heard a lot about,
although I have never actually read it myself. One thing that I kept
thinking about when reading this article is that it seems to presuppose
that Object Oriented programming is in all ways a superior way to
program. Thus, ultimately the department is trying to teach all computer
science majors to program in OO, and teaching them in the 4th semester
just makes it more difficult. However, my personal opinion is that both
procedural and object oriented paradigms are perfectly valid, and to be
a good programmer you should understand and be able to work with
either. This raises the question of whether it is better to go from
procedural to OO or vice versa. My gut seems to think OO to procedural,
but the department never really teaches that, and cs15 is often entirely
too religious about it. If the class invalidates procedural programming,
then it is training entire sets of students to not use a useful way of
thinking.
[I have some more interesting things to say about this
article. However, I started these too late, overslept, and how have a
class to go to. More insights later.]
Reactions
Matt's Reaction
As I read this, I thought about how I've been brainwashed into thinking
that OOP is superior to procedural programming. Since day one, all I've
heard at Brown is OOP, OOP, OOP; but procedural programming (if it hasn't
been erased from brain completely) did seem to have some advantages.
Perhaps a lecture could be devoted about what you would use procedural
programming for, and how it compares to OOP. I know there was one this
year, but it was also biased toward OOP. Perhaps procedural programming
should be taught somewhere along the line, but I definitely think it would
be easier to go from OOP to procedural programming. Having experienced it
the other way around, the first month wasn't all that fun.
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