I think the differentiation you're looking for is between active objects and passive objects. I'm not entirely sure these are formal terms, but terms that I use pretty freely since they seem to be intuitive. Active objects act upon passive objects. That doesn't necessarily imply that active objects are Threads, though sometimes that's the way their activity is implemented. However, it does imply that passive objects behave much as you described in your car wash example - they're are the tinkerees (as opposed to the tinkerers).
Posts made by bernso
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RE: Question about OOP
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RE: Question about OOP
I think the differentiation you're looking for is between active objects and passive objects. I'm not entirely sure these are formal terms, but terms that I use pretty freely since they seem to be intuitive. Active objects act upon passive objects. That doesn't necessarily imply that active objects are Threads, though sometimes that's the way their activity is implemented. However, it does imply that passive objects behave much as you described in your car wash example - they're are the tinkerees (as opposed to the tinkerers).
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C#/Java blend?
I just joined a group that has an existing codebase entirely in C#. It's not bad, but the code could be much improved (separating front end from business logic, isolating data access, ...). Personally, I'm a bigger fan of Java than I am of C# - force of habit. But beyond my personal preference, I can see this system benefiting from distribution, some standard persistence model, and true platform independence. I imagine there are solutions available in C# for these, but I know and am happy with the mature Java solutions for these issues.
However, the group is definitely into using Microsoft solutions, and I'll readily admit that I've never seen front ends in the miscellaneous Java technologies that could compete with the drag-and-drop interfaces you can build with Visual Studio. So I've been thinking, why not interface the two technologies - a C# front end communicating via Web Services with a Java backend. After all, it's pretty well acknowledged that though Microsoft is winning the desktop battle (including pretty, responsive interfaces), Java still has a slight advantage in the enterprise/server environment. Is this a complete WTF or might there be some value to this blended architecture?
Thanks.