How Much More Basic Do We Need To Get?

I've spent the entire day in Manhattan at an MSDN gig first and then the .NET Developer Group meeting at the mothership office. I don't know whose idea it was to hold the MSDN event over at a Regal Cinema, but the ambient smell of popcorn and people walking around with Coke and candies really gave me a funny feelin'. :)

One of the talks of this series of events is Object Oriented Programming in Visual Basic.NET. I'm a die-hard C# developer, but I thought I wouldn't mind a hard-core talk on the wonders of VB.NET.

Talk about being bored to death! The speaker went all the way back to what OO is and what benefits it offers. I can't believe it. We're 4 years into .NET, countless years into C++, and yet... These topics... Need to shake it off.

My question of the day is, How many more times can we go back to these basics? Are we done with the basics of information architecture or architecture in general? Are we done with teaching people to stop abusing browser tolerance?

Somebody talk to me. What are the right basics we should be teaching?

What? You mean you didn't enjoy WA-TOR? I thought it was cool man! Well, it did remind me why I picked up my first pc in the first place - writing computer games.

In any case, I actually wanted that Object Thinking book. By the way, I don't think the guy who got the book was correct(along with Rob Jackson). What VB6 doesn't support is Inheritance not Polymorphism. I didn't want to say anything though.

Hope you had a better time at the user group meeting. I mostly wanted to be at the event for the beta software as I'm too lazy to download them.

I also couldn't believe the topic "Optimizing ASP.NET 1.1 Web Applications" got 15 minutes or so of complete bullcrap.

The user group meeting went all right. I'm going to send Miguel some ideas of how to improve his composite control. :)

Yes, and why is it that every author feels the need to tout the benefits of OO and includes a chapter on class design in every programming book out there? Please, stop it.

To suggest that OO basics never again need be addressed is fundamentally the same as suggesting that Coke never again need to be advertised.

Both suggestions disregard the fact that a new customer is born every day.

.NET has lowered the barriers to application development. Anyone with a free editor and the .NET SDK can have a go. As such, there will be a constant stream of newbies ... who need instruction in OO basics.

Hence, any book, article, seminar or course aimed at newbies must include OO basics. Sure it's all been said before ... but it hasn't been said to these newbies. They need to hear it.

Of course, any book, article, seminar or course aimed at intermediate or advanced developers should *not* include OO basics. Indeed, what a complete waste of time.

So, I don't think the call should be, "How many more times will we talk about the basics of OO?" We should be talking about it for as long as there are new developers. The call should be, "Who the hell deemed it necessary to include OO basics in a talk to MSDN Developers?"

Nor should we call for no more book chapters on OOP or class design. Each book may be the first that the new developer has bought. Advanced developers can merrily skip the chapter; but don't penalize new or intermediate developers.

You ask, what are "the right basics"? How about, "The User"? If the typical user can't actually use a feature, then it matters not one iota that it's a cleverly-coded, well-designed, high-performing feature.

Indeed, any discussion of a class, component or application — that does not also include talk of its consumer — is incomplete.

So that (to me) is the right basic that bears repeating ... THE USER!

And to be fair, the online details of that talk did clearly state, "Learn the fundamentals of Object Oriented Programming" ... and is clearly aimed at VB6 users who are transitioning to VB.NET.

What were you *expecting* them to talk about?????

Excellent points, Alister! The stream of newcomers will not dry up ever (I hope). Therefore "Back To Basics" series will keep rollin'!

OOP basics....what about the basics of where it should and should not be used? I've seen simple two day projects get blown up to two week ones because someone insisted on using OOP principles.
That would be some good basic understanding....when to use it and when to leave it...IMO