[exDM69]

I agree. For some reason the whole OOP thing got really out of hands and has been force fed into a whole generation of programmers. Yet there's no real evidence that OOP is the right way to go. And then there was the whole Java deal where the "everything is an object" mantra was taken so far that it hurts. The result is probably the most expensive mistake in the history of computing with machines.

> UPDATE: I have a feeling that in 25 years we'll be dissing the current fad du jour - functional programming.

In 25 years, we will be laughing at the present for sure. I just disagree on what that fad is (functional programming is hardly popular enough to be called a "fad", but it's been bubbling under for 30+ years). I think it is dynamic programming languages like Ruby and Python, which to some degree are great but fall apart quickly. Another candidate is Node.js -style asynchronous programming, which will be laughed at once a mainstream language ships with a proper async model like the IO manager of Haskell or Erlang.

[Symmetry]

It got out of hand, but it's still a rather nice paradigm if you're actually simulating a system or designing a GUI. Teaching it as the One True Paradigm is certainly bad, but it certainly has its uses.

[tomp]

> designing a GUI

Not really. HTML/CSS/JavaScript combination is not really OO, but works really really well.

In general, I think that any "programming language" for GUI is a fail - we need to develop a declarative approach to GUI (like HTML/CSS, but with more features (e.g. effects) and more emphasis on Application Development (e.g. it's still really hard to create a photoshop-like interface in HTML), less on text presentation).

[exDM69]

Related: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4moyKUHApq4

An interesting approach to declarative GUI programming from Adobe.

[barrkel]

HTML kind of sucks as a GUI though. You have to work really really hard with Javascript to make it work semi-well.

HTML+HTTP works really well as a way to scale up client / server GUI over a high latency / low bandwidth network. That's its strong point; not that it makes for a good UI in terms of human factors.

[mseepgood]

Who told you that JavaScript was "not really OO"?

[JonnieCache]

It doesn't have classes or inheritance.

[jvm]

You don't count this as inheritance? Also, classes aren't required for OOP.

    function Parent() {
        // somestuff
    }
    function Child() {
        Parent.call(this);
    }
    Child.prototype = new Parent();
    Child.prototype.constructor = Child

[JonnieCache]

I call that prototypical construction. The point is, it's hardly java.