[961] in java-interest
Re: overloading of operators
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jay Gallivan)
Tue Aug 15 22:40:34 1995
Reply-To: jag@mvision.com
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 95 09:45:30 CDT
From: jag@mvision.com (Jay Gallivan)
To: daemon@java.sun.com
Cc: Matthew-Newman@deshaw.com, MikeDacon@aol.com, java-interest@java.sun.com
In-Reply-To: <9508150809.AA12063@hermes.bouw.tno.nl> (message from Tako Schotanus on Tue, 15 Aug 95 10:09:08 +0200)
Tako Schotanus writes...
>
>I apologise if this is a bit rude, but I really think that it's nobodies
>business but mine to decide what features I'm going to use or not.
>
>So shortly put: If there are NO compelling reasons NOT to have the feature
>we might as well considering putting it in for the people who want it.
>
>(Compelling reasons could be: performance problems even for programs NOT
>using the feature or even just that the Sun-people think it's too much work :)
>
In general, the major costs incurred in the software development
life-cycle are incurred during the maintenance phase. A driving forces
behind the use of OO languages is the goal of reduced maintenance
costs.
Operator overloading is one of those features that has utility in
quite specific circumstances (we've gotten along without for a long
time). In the context of managing large software projects, the costs
of operator overloading probably exceed the benefits. The costs I
refer to are derived from the relative obscurity of feature, which
makes maintenance a real (costly) problem.
You might argue that groups are free to develop development guidelines
that prohibit the use of certain features. You are right. However,
guidelines are often ignored by developers who, often, review code.
To compete in the market place, Java should remain cost competitive
over the software live-cycle. I'd like to see Java succeed. In my
view, success is most likely with a relatively simple accessible
language.
For software you write and maintain yourself the issue of maintenance
cost may not be an issue at all.
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