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Message:

Copout...

Posted by Mike Mannion on 11 Nov 1998, 5:41 AM

Regarding...

> sense and is very useful. He [Mike] saw Java's approach of only
> allowing multiple inheritance of interface (via interfaces)
> as a bit of a copout. (Let me know if I got this wrong, Mike.)

Most definately a copout, albeit a pragmatic and clever one.

> But alas, I want to emphasize that I don't emphasize composition
> or de-emphasize inheritance in my designs, although I seem

I didn't really believe this was your opinion. It was just bad paraphrasing when I said "...that emphasis/bias which Bill has given to composition..."

> me that it is excluded in Java. Mike is right on target when
> he says that the guidelines I propose in these articles are
> "in part a consequence of the restrictions imposed by the
> Java language itself." Given the language as it exists, I
> try to advise the best way to use it.

Apparantly the composition vs inheritance argument needs to be discussed on two levels: (1) From a domain modeling perspective and (2) from an implementation platform perspective.
Unfortunate, don't you think?!

• The copout and the java API Chris Morris December 01, 2000 at 7:50 AM (0)