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Re: Methods in the NIM requirements



on 05/01/2000 2:38 PM, Joel M. Halpern at joel@ivyplan.com wrote:

> While I can not construct a strong example of what methods the information
> model requires, I am very much of the opinion that the modeling tool must
> include support for methods.  For most attributes, read / write attribute
> semantics will suffice, but for some cases methods with signatures and
> semantics will be necessary.  I rather hope and expect that that is one of
> the place where the power of inheritance will come into play as
> well.  Otherwise it is purely a textual convention.

I think this is well said. In the end much of what is needed may not require
methods. The important point is to be very careful if they are to be
defined. 

The Qos Device Model was brought up by John recently. I have worked with the
people developing the Differentiated Services Policy MIB Module and mapped
the Qos Device Model to that. It works pretty well though there are some
places we have some 'tuning' to do. An interesting observation I would make
however is that the UML diagram I see by John S., Walter and David D. has
only ClassNames and Attributes. There is not a single method on the whole
diagram. That does not mean methods are not good or that a language should
not support them - I think it should. The point is that we should use them
only when required.

/jon