Hiya JVP ---

>Keep in mind that COM does'nt even support inheritance.....< bg >
>

Hmmm....COM seems more concerned with object structure and interfaces than OOP theory....think about it: If inheritance were a requirement for COM, MS would be locking out VB developers....not a great marketing decision for Bill.

>With regard to using Access/Assign - I am on the fence. On one hand, I am totally in Dave F.'s camp. Its automatic, its clean, it works. I do believe however that Access/Assign methods are actually slower than manually created Get/Set Methods. The speed hit though, is negligible I am sure. On the whole, Access/Assign Methods are pretty cool and are the way to go.
>

David and Gary convinced me....especially when I studied how it's implemented in the other "OOP" languages.

>Jacobson's argument I think lies in encapsulation - which is where a lot of debate occurs. How much encapsulaton is enough? How much should you rely on coupling between objects. At some point, you need to build something and get it working. You can spend years on the theory - and not build squat. This is why many OO books are dangerous.
>

I agree 100%. At some point you have to compromise the pure academics....fer sure.

In my quest to seek out the OOSE Holy Grail I have stumbled upon a new (or underexplored) type of mediator and/or interface object which I am currently writing up. I'll send you a draft of my findings :-)

Thanks for the input (as always)!