The reference by FoxtrotUniform to The world is not object oriented is very important despite the fact the 50+ associated nodes tend to spin off into subjects that are a far cry from the orginal. (Those spin-offs have value of their own). As more of an engineer than academic (how many times do I say that), I find the academic discussions more entertaining than practical. I have missed out on some very practical things, it seems, by discounting them in this way, e.g., the notion of Functional Programming.

It is always a challenge to decide whether the time spent in studying a new model of thinking/designing/programming is worth the investment in order to achieve productivity for the user as well as the programmer. Spreadsheets (also mentioned in the orginal node and in the discussion at Re: Re: The world is not object oriented) are a fine example of productivity without an underlieing academicly derived model. Spreadsheets are important because they provide a way for people to model their numerical thinking. So too, MatLab and many other popular applications.

It may sound like I'm saying to ignore these purest models. No, I'm just saying, like others, particularly engineers, use the tools that work. Don't bother with rederiving the equations.. they can be found in the papers and books.

Now, of course, if you are trying to develop a research project for an advanced degree, well it should be unique and interesting, for its own sake.

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