 7:46:04 PM A few words ... Business Object Programming
I started to write an editorial about reflection in .NET and set that aside to focus briefly about a change I see in the development industry. I want to briefly talk about a paradigm shift that is starting in the development industry.
About a week ago, I helped arrange a presentation on "What is Microsoft .NET". This was a technical presentation give to a little over 50 technical business leaders here in my home town.
These were not Microsoft cronies, rather this group provided a good cross section of the technical industry. Most of these people were leaders in IT departments.
A realization came to light as I listened to the questions being asked about .NET and the direction Microsoft seems to be taking their tools and platforms. This insight goes deeper and wider than just Microsoft's .NET, it extends to the very concepts and standards taking form today. The development world is changing, and most people don't realize the extent of the change that is happening. Worse, the change is so subtle, that most developers may not fully understand that it is a change.
I was once told that the paradigms in the development world change about every 10 years. About ten years ago, OOP started to take hold. In simplistic terms, OOP was a different way for programmers to approach an application. OOP changed the way programmers needed to think about both design and development. I could argue that OOP is just now--in the last few years--being truly implemented on a broad scale. Many people still don't really understand the basic concepts in OOP including concepts such as encapsulations, polymorphism, and inheritance. Having said that, I believe there are few people who would argue against OOP being a positive approach that offers significant advantages for developing applications.
Just as OOP was a significant change, the new paradigm that is coming into existence will also have a huge impact. Some of you may already be developing using the new paradigm. Many more may believe you are. Regardless, the change may not seem very big. The long term impact on implementing this change can be as big as implementing OOP. It could possibly be even bigger.
What is this change? I don't know the word for it yet. I'll call it BOP.
With standardizations occurring in a number of areas, the ability to create interoperable applications is becoming much easier.
Better yet, the ability to create interoperable components is now easier.
With new tools such as .NET, the programming language is becoming less of an issue. While various programming languages have their benefits, for the most part it doesn't matter what language you use to create your applications. Add to this the fact that building user interfaces has become easier. Standards such as SOAP and XML are making it easy to communicate between applications or between processes. Additionally, infrastructures such as the .NET Framework are providing the flexibility to create a single application that can adapt to a number of different interfaces.
Because the form factor of devices is changing, and will continue to change, it is becoming imperative to not develop applications that assume a specific set of device or interface characteristics.
Additionally, building forms can be done with much less effort.
Building forms that can adapt to different device interfaces is also becoming easier.
Where is all this leading to? It is leading to a change in the priority of the focus of an application being developed. Enter BOP.
The paradigm shift that I see happening is a movement towards Business Object Programming. Business logic is the unique, most valuable aspect of most programs. It is often the business logic that is core to an application meeting a user's needs. The trend will be to build the business logic of the application (Business Objects) as a completely independent part of the application. The core business logic should be programmed into modules that stand independent of the interface. By doing this, you will leave yourself much more flexible to react and adapt to the changing interfaces. Additionally, just like regular OOP, you'll be able to adapt these business objects to your changing business rules.
You'll find that standards for accessing business objects are being created. Many are already in place. Additionally, standard ways of making business logic available are also being created.
This includes the use of Web Services, remoting, and more.
BOP has been happening. With easier standards coming and with the ability to communicate with such objects on any machine nywhere in the world (via the Web and other standard protocols), the level of difficulty for interacting with Business Objects is becoming easier. It doesn't take a COM or Corba programmer to create and use business objects. They can be created without much additional effort by programmers of any language.
BOP is not really new. Business Objects have been around for a while. Additionally, there are a number of related concepts such as Business Intellegence.
As a developer, your focus should be on the business logic. Look for BOP to come to an application near you.
Until next week...
Brad!
Brad Jones
www.CodeGuru.com
webmaster@codeguru.com
CodeGuru Newsletter (09-24-2002)
This newsletter is published by Jupitermedia Corporation http://internet.com - The Internet & IT Network Copyright (c) 2002 Jupitermedia Corporation. All rights reserved. |
"Data! data! data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay."
