Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!news.glorb.com!news-out.readnews.com!transit3.readnews.com!news-out.news.tds.net!newsreading01.news.tds.net!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: "John B. Matthews" Subject: Re: Do C++ and Java professionals use UML?? Message-ID: <501EB530.56190.calajapr@time.synchro.net> X-Comment-To: Patricia Shanahan Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer In-Reply-To: <501D6355.56129.calajapr@time.synchro.net> References: <501D6355.56129.calajapr@time.synchro.net> X-FTN-AREA: COMP.LANG.JAVA.PROGRAMMER X-FTN-MSGID: 1:261/38 2adae4a9 X-FTN-REPLY: 1:261/38 80463129 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=IBM437 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Gateway: time.synchro.net [Synchronet 3.16a-Win32 NewsLink 1.98] Lines: 64 Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2012 18:42:34 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 69.21.70.65 X-Complaints-To: news@tds.net X-Trace: newsreading01.news.tds.net 1344192154 69.21.70.65 (Sun, 05 Aug 2012 13:42:34 CDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2012 13:42:34 CDT Organization: tds.net Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:17231 To: Patricia Shanahan From: "John B. Matthews" In article , Patricia Shanahan wrote: > On 8/4/2012 1:17 AM, Wanja Gayk wrote: > > In article , > > pats@acm.org says... > > > >> I think of programming languages as tools, not philosophies. > > > > You can use a excavator to dig a hole and you could use your old > > hand shovel, but you would not try to grab and move the excavator's > > arm with our hands to dig a hole, just because that's the way you > > operated your old hand shovel for the past 10 years, and you're > > used to that. > > > > Both are different tools that use the same method (digging) to do > > the same job (creating a hole), but they want to be used the way > > their inventors have imagined, not the way you have used another > > tool previously. It may still work though, but I doubt it's the > > brightest idea. > > There are indeed some things that are really necessary for effective > use of a given tool. I put the sharp end of my chisel against the > wood, and tap the blunt end with a mallet. I'm sure everyone using a > wood chisel and a mallet does that the same way round. One sharp on both ends might be widely rejected as dangerous; one blunt on both ends might be an unfamiliar style of draw knife. I see no harm in polite explication in either case. > The analogy for the situation that started this sub-thread is as > though the excavator were delivered with green paint, and most > excavators of that model were painted green. A particular user has a > lot of hole-related tools such as pile drivers and other models of > excavators, and choose to paint all of them blue to avoid the > inconvenience of keeping different paint colors around. > > He asked a question about lubricating the excavator, but some people > take one look at a photo of his blue excavator and tell him that it > should be green, that he will never be a capable excavator user > unless he paints it green, and that green paint is the excavator way. A medical supply vendor asks for help marketing a new line of compressed nitrous oxide. Instead of the familiar blue, the tanks are green, "nitrous" is almost illegible, and "oxide" is misspelled in a particularly unfortunate way. No one comments. An errant bottle finds its way to a matching green oxygen manifold; hapless victims enter a persistent vegetative state. Misery ensues. As a practical matter, most stylistic vagaries fall between these consequential extremes. I would encourage posters to welcome related answers, both those that cite a problem and those that comment on its relative importance. -- John B. Matthews trashgod at gmail dot com --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Dada-1 * Origin: Prism bbs (1:261/38) --- Synchronet 3.16a-Win32 NewsLink 1.98 Time Warp of the Future BBS - telnet://time.synchro.net:24