@ Jeremy...
you've managed to encapsulate everything that took me about 50 or so lines of typing, into a short two or three liner... which exactly explains the whole concept in one short, sweet, and concise paragraph...
i wish i had put it exactly that way :)
one thing i left out in my soapbox above, was the idea of code reuse... although i briefly touched upon it, i neglected to emphasize that making clean classes for the base of your class heirarchy is a key part of the development cycle... mainly because these classes can be reused over and over again... and it frees you from having to redo stuff that you will be using again and again in your new projects...
don't expect to get BlitzMax, and immediately jump into coding up your killer game app... you should start off thinking about exactly what functionality your game, or for that matter, any game, would require, at it's most generic state... then code the classes to implement these functionalities, with an eye towards your future development needs...
like Jeremy said above... keep it clean and minimalist, so that each class only does what it needs to do to present the functionality it is supposed to, and doesn't restrict any descendant classes in any unreasonable way...
soon you will have a class library that you can use over and over again to jumpstart most of your new projects... and while in the beginning, this might seem like a drawn out and unnecessary process, you will soon start to see and reap the benefits of this approach...
Cyg and Norman... i really don't understand the whole idea about overusing OOP... not trying to be pedantic here, or to force a point of view... i seriously just don't understand what you mean by overuse of OOP... but in the back of my mind i'm sensing that there may be something to what you are saying...
... can you guys come up with a simple illustrations or example of this?
--Mike
It's all about organization though and understanding that less is more. Each class or type should be very minimal and just tie into other minimalist classes or types. The complexity comes from extensions, not by creating any one complex class or type.
without turning this into a mutual admiration exchange :), i just wanna say how impressed i am with your clarity of vision on this topic...you've managed to encapsulate everything that took me about 50 or so lines of typing, into a short two or three liner... which exactly explains the whole concept in one short, sweet, and concise paragraph...
i wish i had put it exactly that way :)
one thing i left out in my soapbox above, was the idea of code reuse... although i briefly touched upon it, i neglected to emphasize that making clean classes for the base of your class heirarchy is a key part of the development cycle... mainly because these classes can be reused over and over again... and it frees you from having to redo stuff that you will be using again and again in your new projects...
don't expect to get BlitzMax, and immediately jump into coding up your killer game app... you should start off thinking about exactly what functionality your game, or for that matter, any game, would require, at it's most generic state... then code the classes to implement these functionalities, with an eye towards your future development needs...
like Jeremy said above... keep it clean and minimalist, so that each class only does what it needs to do to present the functionality it is supposed to, and doesn't restrict any descendant classes in any unreasonable way...
soon you will have a class library that you can use over and over again to jumpstart most of your new projects... and while in the beginning, this might seem like a drawn out and unnecessary process, you will soon start to see and reap the benefits of this approach...
Cyg and Norman... i really don't understand the whole idea about overusing OOP... not trying to be pedantic here, or to force a point of view... i seriously just don't understand what you mean by overuse of OOP... but in the back of my mind i'm sensing that there may be something to what you are saying...
... can you guys come up with a simple illustrations or example of this?
--Mike