Textbook Oo

TopMind claims even many OO proponents agree that OO textbooks and training material is often misleading and creates bad habits early on.

The books (no citations given), he says, tend to over-emphasize examples such as:

• Geometric shapes
• Animals
• Device drivers
• AbstractDataTypes (ADT)

Some of these give the student the impression that everything should be built around hierarchical taxonomies or sub-typed into sub-categories. Device drivers and ADT's are fine for illustrating concepts, but tend to imply that everything nicely fits such patterns. Real world applications tend to use more complex combinations rather than a master polymorphic taxonomy. There is rarely a disclaimer or advice about not taking the examples too literally.

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EditHint: merge non-duplicated stuff with OverUsedOopExamples.

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see also ConfusionAboutInheritance {Hmmm. Same topic? Not sure. Are all problems in such books related to just inheritance?}

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