Re: C++ & STL: last, best hope for software reuse? Or just a cruel ho

Jeff Bone (jbone@activerse.com)
Wed, 12 Aug 1998 00:36:47 -0500


> what will I find when my honeymoon with STL is over?

* You will be filling prescriptions for Xanax, Buspar, and Zoloft
* You will find yourself thinking "hey, APL was really neat" (rewrite,
don't reuse!)
* You'll find yourself using profanity to express your disgust with
"that f*cking STL"

:-)

Seriously, (IMNSHO) code re-use is a pipe dream not because languages
don't support it and not because there aren't good class libraries, but
because (a) fine-grained decomposition of code as per the "objects all
the way" philosophers actually *inhibits* code reuse by increasing
interface surface area and dependencies; (b) it's an engineer's
greatest natural temptation and worst deadly sin to think "well, that's
great but I can do it better, cheaper, and faster" --- and they're
probably right; and (c) what we all *really* need is high-level design
re-use and coarse-grained code re-use, with frameworks supporting
flexible composition and totally throw-away code.

Just to tie this back to the jihad, a simple thought: the best example
of "code re-use" out there is UNIX, at the user level with pipes and
shell tools. :-/ :-)

jb