[comp.software-eng] ?Relationship of OOP and JSD?

mike@ai.etl.army.mil (Mike McDonnell) (10/07/88)

We here at ETL are embarking on a medium-sized software development
project.  We want to use "structured techniques", but we need help.  I
like JSP and JSD because of Jackson's "entities", which seem to be
something like the "objects" in C++, Flavor systems, and the Common Lisp
Object System (CLOS).

It seems to me that what Jackson was after was a sort of object-oriented
programming [OOP] method that he developed using the tools of his day
(early 70's I think).  His idea of modeling objects rather than
procedures is attractive, but the implementation seems complicated.
Would it be possible to do a more simple and natural implementation of
Jackson's ideas using a more modern programming language?  Also, the
languages available to me (C, C++, Common Lisp and CLOS) don't have
coroutine linkages.  I'm not sure how to simulate them.  I also don't
understand what he means by "inverting a program", but it seems
unnatural.

I need to know more before I can commit to a design method.  Are my
conclusions about the relationship between JSD and OOP justified?  If
there is a separate discipline of program and system design that has
evolved to the maturity of JSP and JSD and is based on modern concepts
of OOP, what is it?  So many questions, so little time...

Apologies if this has been thrashed out here already, but I am a new
reader of this interest group.
-- 
Mike McDonnell at the U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Laboratories, Bldg. 2592
Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-5546   TEL:(202)355-2724   ARPA: mike@ai.etl.army.mil