[HN Gopher] Data Oriented Design - first chapter (2018)
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       Data Oriented Design - first chapter (2018)
        
       Author : jesseduffield
       Score  : 54 points
       Date   : 2021-11-20 23:48 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (dataorienteddesign.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (dataorienteddesign.com)
        
       | OneTimePetes wrote:
       | To be honest i wish there was some sort of situational Design
       | Paradigm - the VIM of languages. OO in the design of the
       | Structures/Debug-Data Representation, DOD in the structures and
       | algos, functional whenever the programmer itself is represented
       | (the "marshallers and handlers" in OO.)
       | 
       | Somewhere in this triangle of worlds, there is a optimum of
       | speed, debug and reason ability and beautiful code with minimal
       | repetition..
        
         | exdsq wrote:
         | Can you just use a multi-paradigm language to do this?
        
           | macintux wrote:
           | I've found that multi-paradigm languages are often
           | frustrating because they don't enforce constraints.
           | 
           | One of the advantages of a language like Erlang is that it
           | mandates immutable data, and can both optimize for that and
           | give the developer an easier time reasoning about where
           | changes can and can't occur.
           | 
           | Python teases with its newer functional features, but any
           | time you pass a data structure off to code outside your
           | control you have no guarantees about what will happen to it.
        
             | dragontamer wrote:
             | > One of the advantages of a language like Erlang is that
             | it mandates immutable data, and can both optimize for that
             | and give the developer an easier time reasoning about where
             | changes can and can't occur.
             | 
             | Isn't that just the keyword "const" in C++? Its not perfect
             | but if you need const the keyword really helps ensuring you
             | 'pass' the const concept all the way down your data to its
             | roots.
             | 
             | You can also have immutable data in Java. Instead of
             | implementing both "setFoo" and "getFoo", you simply
             | implement "getFoo".
        
               | macintux wrote:
               | It goes much deeper than that.
               | 
               | For example, again referencing Erlang since that's the
               | only FP language I'm well-versed in, immutable data +
               | pattern matching means that there are assertions on
               | practically every line of code in production.
        
               | dragontamer wrote:
               | In C++, any "const" data can only have "const" operations
               | operate upon them.                   const int x = 20;
               | x = 30 ; // Compile Error, not a const operation.
               | int y = x + 20; // Allowed
               | 
               | If you have a class:                   class Foo{
               | public:             const int x;             int y;
               | Foo(int initial): x(initial), y(initial){             }
               | void setY(int value){                 y = value;
               | }                  int getXPlusY() const{
               | return x + y;             }         };              Foo
               | f(20); // Allowed         f.x = 30; // Compile Error, not
               | a const-operation         int y = f.x + 30; // Allowed
               | const Foo f2(20); // The f2 object is now const. Non-
               | const routines are no longer allowed         f2.setY(30);
               | // Not a const-routine.         int bar = f2.getXPlusY();
               | // Allowed, getXPlusY is a const-function
               | 
               | -----------------
               | 
               | So yes. Every single line of code you write will be
               | double-checked by the compiler to see if it is "const-
               | correct". That's the advantage of multi-paradigm
               | languages like C++. Its not "pure", but it implements
               | ideas like immutability from other languages.
        
               | Jtsummers wrote:
               | I think macintux is referring to something like this:
               | get_exactly_n_or_crash(N) ->         {N, Data} =
               | get_data(N).
               | 
               | Suppose _get_data_ will get N or less pieces (if N pieces
               | of data aren 't available) of data and return, as a
               | tuple, both the amount of data obtained and the data. The
               | above assignment is actually part of Erlang's pattern
               | matching, the second use of _N_ (on the LHS of the =) is
               | not actually an assignment, it 's a check. If _get_data_
               | returned less than _N_ pieces of data, the program would
               | crash (which you can catch and respond to) at that point.
        
       | armchairhacker wrote:
       | Some code snippets and images would really help here. Also some
       | more concrete examples.
       | 
       | I understand the main point that data is everything, but the
       | author's arguments are hard to learn and go over my head.
        
         | skavi wrote:
         | Go to any other chapter for plenty of code snippets. The first
         | chapter is more meant to motivate than explain.
        
         | Rd6n6 wrote:
         | Agreed. When they criticize the OOP approach to modelling game
         | objects, they really needs to give an example of how they think
         | it should be done using the data approach. There are a dozen
         | ways to do this that they may be referring to, I'm not sure
         | which it is
         | 
         | The wording makes it seem like they are criticizing objects
         | because encapsulation makes the contained data less reusable.
         | Well... that's the whole point of encapsulation. I think the
         | author is trying to say some things and it's just not coming
         | through as clearly as they intended
        
           | skavi wrote:
           | The entire rest of the book provides examples. There's even a
           | direct comparison between initializing a scene in an OOP way
           | vs a DOD way in the next chapter.
        
             | Rd6n6 wrote:
             | Interesting, thanks for letting me know, I'll read that
        
       | jesseduffield wrote:
       | I found this chapter to be a good primer on DOD and how OO runs
       | into trouble whenever changes need to be made
        
       | jcelerier wrote:
       | For anyone interested into very light forays of DoD in C++, I've
       | put out this library recently which allows to have an "object"
       | API on top of an array-based storage (AoS interface / SoA
       | implementation): https://github.com/celtera/ahsohtoa
        
       | aeternum wrote:
       | Specificity and examples are critical and the article lacks both.
       | It's somewhat ironic that the author talks about the importance
       | of data yet offers few examples and datapoints of where this
       | paradigm works and doesn't work.
       | 
       | Without specificity, the merits of the design are not
       | falsifiable.
        
         | Jtsummers wrote:
         | That's chapter one, not a single standalone article. You can
         | read more by clicking on "contents" at the top or following
         | this link: https://dataorienteddesign.com/dodbook/node1.html.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Past related discussions:
       | 
       |  _Data-Oriented Design (2018)_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20380397 - July 2019 (37
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Data-Oriented Design (2013)_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11064762 - Feb 2016 (8
       | comments)
        
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