Each cell as an individual object is not only obviously inefficient, it's absurdly so.

It's like some idiot kid who just learned about "oop" thought to himself "cells, that's a noun. I'll make a cell class!" without putting in any further thought. It's a laughably bad approach that you wouldn't expect from anyone even minimally competent.

That this is the approach initially used is beyond belief. That it's still the approach used stretches credulity!

That's the average autodidact for you...

...

Really? Someone thought that was a good idea?

They're all solving different problems. TeX is designed for typesetting, which HTML and Word formats aren't well-suited. HTML does structure well, but it's useless for typesetting. OOXML is a weird mix, not really well suited to either task. It's better than older formats, but it's still incredibly painful to generate, and near impossible to read. If I had to guess, it's designed to give MS the ability to say that the format is open, while still making it difficult for competitors to support.

I once wrote a Basic interpreter in Basic to annoy a friend.

That's not even a little bit true.

Check your facts before posting next time.

Of course we did. We also moved on to better tools as our needs, and motor skills, developed.

DaVinci and Monet didn't work with finger-paints. Tolstoy didn't scratch out War and Peace across a public beach. You used a keyboard, and not a sandbox, to write this post.

You tell 'em. That worked out great for Windows 8, after all...

Wait, those are two different groups?

We're talking about the UI here, not the size of the app store.

I'm not sure how to best explain it; it's like everything else is needlessly broken. I finally understand why so many WebOS users cling to their old pre 3's! I used to think the UI was impressive, a cut above the rest, but "not enough" to justify a switch. How wrong I was.

WebOS users must have thought the whole world had gone mad. They were zipping around in jet packs while everyone around them was buzzing with excitement over the latest ox cart.

BB10 (sensibly) steals a lot of the good ideas found in WebOS, and adds a few of their own. We can debate which one is better, sure, but it's clear they're both *still* well ahead of the pack as far as the UI is concerned. Everything else just feels ... crippled ... like I've traveled back in time.

I'll second this. After using BB10, using Android or iOS is like stepping back in time.

It's a completely meaningless term. When you see someone arguing about whether or not a given language is a "scripting language", just assume that they're morons.

Nonsense, of course it was.

Funny, the first iPhone didn't support MMS and it manged to survive.

They made how many for the first go round again? Something like 1000 that they only sold through eBay? I'm going to guess that they don't think it's ready for end users either.

Objects can be handy when used appropriately. I don't know that anyone disputes that. OOP, however, isn't even a coherent concept. That's my objection.

Putting that in context here, quicksort is an important algorithm. It's well understood and can be taught. OOP is nebulous and incoherent. It cannot be taught as no one can even agree on so much as its basic constituents! You'll even find people who don't agree that objects are essential to OOP. In short: whatever you teach, you'll find a large number of people who will not agree that what you're teaching is OOP.