Maximum PC

If you need to combine several classes into useful unit, you basically have to design something using inheritance or composition smartly. Friending a function or a class only makes sense when you need specific functionality. As far as I understand, the best use of friends is to make the syntax of writing code easier when it comes to combining different classes or functions.

Other than that, you create a library.




Sure. I need to spend some time evaluating the correctness of the code and the elegance of it. Then I will hand out awards.

1. SOmetime I will show you my resume so you can see why that comment doesn't really apply to me.
2. I didn't knock VB - just pointed out some realities about it. I said it was a real programming language. It has a few advantages. It has a number of dis-advatages as well.
3. My qualm was with your shallow definition of a programming language and your assertion that VB was designed originally for business.



That sounds like vendor speak. You failed to mention the possible limitations.



Since you brought it up - lets talk about it a second. Who uses python:

http://www.python.org/community/users.html
http://www.pythonology.com/success

Some uni's teach it (Irvine and Stanford for example)

Python.NET is currently out and being tuned, Jython allows for Java integration and the original Python already allows for C/++ integration. Python plays nice with xml and has been used to generate xml. In fact, Python is great for the "net"

Visual solutions are up and coming and advanced IDE's already exist.
http://wingide.com/images/screenshots/sourceindex.gif

Python is easy to learn and I know from my own experience one can go from not knowing it to creating simple, useful apps in a few hours.

So yeah - all those script-kiddies at IBM use it.

If I was your CEO, or CIO, I would be asking, "With things like Python out there, why have we pigeon holed ourselves with .NET". Then I would be on the phone with HR - and a few managers and team leaders.

I am not knocking VB. Just showing you a possible future "business" direction.

After you have VB down (or if you already do), don't you think it might be smart to at least look at Python? Sorta get the jump on your co-horts?

Manta

That is the problem I'm talking about though. If you don't have package access, you end up having to compose or inherit in classes that don't really belong together resulting in less cohesion and higher degrees of coupling than you would have otherwise. This is probably the biggest complaint about bad OOP designs: overuse or inappropriate use of composition and inheritance (especially). Also, a lot of people end up just wrapping all of their objects into a 'main class' that is usually the title of whatever project they are working on - 'HotelSystem' for example - and basically run the equivalent of a game loop from within there.

When I get a minute later, I'll pull out my progamming languages book, which iirc, has a good example of a bad OOP design resulting from not using friend.

Isn't a library just a bunch of classes that typically belond to the same namespace?



Great. Um, completely ignore whatever I posted up there - 90% of the time, I have no idea what the hell I was talking about anyways.

Bjarne for president!!!

Angels suck - go Yankees!

Phew! I thought you guys were NEVER going to end your debate! lol.