If I had to describe OO off the top of my head, then I'd probably say that it's used when you have a bunch of similar things, in which the method is the same, and only the data changes. I often wonder why it is that RW examples get used when trying to describe it. For some reason, cups with different contents just entered my mind while thinking about this, the next thing that occured to me was Databases, and that Class::DBI which I thought was a strange overuse of OO when I looked at it, seems to be the classic implementation of such a RW example. And it looks.. like a lot of overkill (a class per table..)

In short, OO solutions seldom tend to mirror the way we describe OO, mini classes for everything just seem wrong.

I agree with your points, in particular, that programming is not directly used to resolve real world problems. Its used to assist people in solving problems, by removing the tedium of some repeated calculations, and for (storing/accessing stored) data. (I wont say its about Interfaces and such, since these only come about if something is solved by programming)

Now I'm trying to figure which of the Mathematicians I am (or was) .. I guess analytical..

And thanks for the link to Design Patterns considered harmful and the various links there.. it got me thinking..

C.