MVC: 30 years later, the other shoe drops

Feel free to attend Jim Coplien’s research seminar on Friday at the Computer Science Department (IDA).


Date: Friday, Oct 3, 2008 Place: Alan Turing(House E, 1 floor). Time: 10:15

Jim Coplien, Gertrud&Cope, Denmark

Abstract:

To its end user, software is not a product, but a service. Procedural programming made it possible to reason about these services and their logic in which most problems could be found in low-cost but dutiful desk checks. The main correlation-like entity was the procedure, which could be assembled to collect large numbers of activation record instances into a few archetypical structures. In 1967, the ability to do this was taken away by object-oriented programming, which encouraged a style of programming where this user-focused structure was subordinated to the user's cognitive model of the static world: of its objects. The algorithmic view was further muddled by inclusion polymorphism. The Smalltalk anthropomorphic view and ever small method sizes made it necessary to understand dozens of atomic algorithms to understand even the simplest functionality. Progress in methodologies reduced this static view to an even more over-simplified and more static view in classes, the almost final step in removing our ability to reason about the end user system model. The final step was Agile methods, which focus on the customer -- the middleman -- instead of the end user, enabling a product focus instead of a service focus. This is even celebrated as a good thing.

Piecemeal, technology has slowly staggered roughly in the direction of the more primordial object view, and AOP has struggled to restore some of the algorithmic view. Roles and role-based modeling have brought back a bit more dynamic view of the system; we find their incarnation in Java and C# interfaces. There is renewed interest in dynamic programming languages and in the kind of flexibility one finds in traits. Trygve Reenskaug has combined these techniques and brought us full circle in the DCI paradigm. The "D" is for data modeling: what we know as traditional objects, though bereft of knowledge about scenarios. It captures the static structure of objects and their references on the heap. The "C" is for context: the mapping of roles onto objects on a per-use-case basis, implemented as a dictionary. The "I" is for interaction: an algorithm of a stateless role, written in terms only of other roles, that defines in readable terms what the system does. Object dynamics can be captured in interaction roles and melded with classes who use the roles as traits; interaction dynamics appear in a context object generated anew for every use case; and structural dynamics appear as references between elements of object data.

This design approach expresses several important correlations that long have been missing in object orientation. Rather than unifying all algorithmic cross-cutting into Aspects, it teases out important facets into the context and interaction, with the object model a third correlation that is usually presumed to be the base partitioning. These correlations conceivably compose in uniform and predictable ways because of their grounding in simple object concepts such as interfaces and classes, rather than cutpoints or wrappers and whoppers. It is an extended subset of multi-paradigm design, incorporating important elements of the procedural and object paradigms.

Speaker's Profile:

Jim ("Cope") Coplien is a Software Architecture and Agile Consultant at Gertrud&Cope in Denmark. He has a 25-year history as an "early adopter" and innovator behind several strategic innovations in software: his C++ Idioms book was one of the major sources for Design Patterns; his work on Organizational Patterns was one of the foundations of the structural components of XP and was the inspiration for Scrums. His books cover areas as diverse as C++ programming, software design, and organizational design. He has started writing a book on Agile software development. His current professional focus areas include Lean software architecture, highlighting the challenges of test-driven development, and Scrum process improvement using Organizational Patterns. His current day-to-day work includes architecture reviews, coding, and helping organizations work more effectively in lean economic conditions through process improvement and reduction of waste. His current hobby is creating advanced (housing) architecture CAD tools based on pattern languages. He lives with his wife and son in Mørdrup, Denmark. When he grows up, he wants to be an anthropologist.