Re: Objects, processes, and encapsulation

[IanPage99@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 09/10/2001 16:53:12 GMT Daylight Time, tjoccam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:


> Don't be so gloomy Ian... If we can just get a WORKING
> MODEL over something like RTLinux we can show the world
> how easy it is to do things that are incredibly
> difficult in OO. Like sensors and robotics. 


Gloomy? Not sure. I don't feel gloomy. But nearly twenty years 
after becoming convinced about using the CSP/occam style of 
design and programming (and most of my experience in that 
time has been in the areas you talk about: sensors, robotics, 
vision, graphics, and simulation) I do find it hard to be optimistic
about how quickly the truth takes to percolate out into the 
mainstream. 

That it finally will out, I have no doubt about. The world has 
not yet come up with a better solution, and the problem is 
getting bigger all the time - c.f. Andrzej's 1m line system.
These two issues, I believe, force the outcome (but 
unfortunately not the timescale)

Personally, I have only written much smaller programs than 
Andrzej's 1m lines - and I thought they were hard enough!  
Interestingly (but not surprisingly), Tony Hoare's original 
inspiration for creating CSP was to understand and reason 
about real-time programs that were completely trivial in size 
compared with 1m lines.

No, I'm not gloomy; but I am more realistic now about how 
long it takes for things to become mainstream. I think there 
is a perspective in which twenty years has hardly made a dent 
in the "real world's" grip on the problem - let alone the solution!

Keep the faith!
Ian