OOP vs Messaging (was Indigo on Wintel)
The problem with OOP in inter-program communication is that you can't
transmit an object as it exists in a program between programs. You can
perform serialization, as it's called in Java, but what you get is a coded
byte string that can be used to recreate an object. This has always been
problematic, since the reconstruction requires the receiver of the byte
string to have access to the same class files as the sender. Not unmanageble
when the communication is among multiple instances of the same program, but
a nightmare in the more usual cases.
Microsoft's decision to use messages (in this case XML documents) is a sound
one. It should avoid many problems that occur in DCOM, RMI, CORBA, etc.
This does not mean OOP is useless, nor does the article assert that it is.
OOP is a useful technique in the construction of programs. Nor is
serialization useless--it shines at its real purpose, which is allowing an
OOP program to easily save and restore its own state.
Concluding that OOP is not a good tool because it works poorly in
inter-program communication is like concluding that a hammer is no good for
driving nails because it is useless for sawing boards.
-- Mike Nelson
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