[cap-talk] objects and facets

[Valerio Bellizzomi]

On 29/12/2006, at 12.59, Bill Frantz wrote:

>david.nospam.hopwood at blueyonder.co.uk (David Hopwood) on Friday, December
>29, 2006 wrote:
>
>>> A read-only facet on a Hashtable:  I have to understand the read-only
>>> operations, and the fact that they don't change the contents of the
>>> Hashtable, but I also have to understand the existence of read-write
>>> facets, which may make my read-only facet return different results at
>>> different times.  While from a programming language point of view,
there
>>> may be two objects, their behavior is linked such that I can't
consider
>>> them in isolation.
>>
>>Right; so you have to think in terms of distict "object" and "composite"
>>concepts, regardless of what they are called. Do you have any particular
>>reason to object (no pun intended) to those names?
>
>Well, when I think of this case, I think of one "thing" (bunch of state)
>with two facets.  That gives me a clear idea of what is going on.  When
>I try to think of it as a composite, accessed by different objects, I
>don't get as clear an idea of their interaction.
>
>Having worked with MarkM, I have gotten used to having the terminology
>change regularly.  Mostly these changes result in clearer explanations,
>but I don't think that is the case with the "object" and "composite"
>terminology.  To be very informal about it, an object is something you
>can kick, and a facet is how you can kick it.  To say a composite is
>something you can kick and an object is how you can kick it doesn't
>have the same resonance.
>
>I would be willing to entertain replacements for "facet".  A replacement
>might have more of the connotation of a collection of methods than
>"facet" does.  (And no, I can't come up with any good suggestions off
>hand.)

What about "interface" as a replacement for "facet" ?


>
>Cheers - Bill
>
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