OOP question....proper way to have 2 objects reference each other?

[SJS]

begin  quoting chris at seberino.org as of Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 01:49:44PM -0800:
> On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 07:22:53AM +0000, SJS wrote:
> > Some folks use a "service" like JNDI, and each object registers itself with
> > the JNDI server, and when objects need to find it, they ask the JNDI server.
> >
> > Almost always I end up wrapping the JNDI server acess into a helper class
> > that I pass in to all objects, at which point I might as well write a
> > helper class:
> 
> There is a brilliant way to do this with event programming that seems to do
> the same thing you are suggesting with JNDI.

s/suggesting/describing/

> You can make up your own "events" and register your event handlers to
> your custom "events".
> 
> Now if you can cause that "event" to happen with a certain function call,
> then *any* object can invoke a registered method (handler) on any object by
> firing that "event" off!!
 
...that's the whole point of an event system, isn't it?

> Encapsulation is preserved and everyone wins!

Well, at a cost of greater complexity.

Everything's a tradeoff. ALWAYS look for the downside, so you can ask
"is this worth the cost in this situation?"

-- 
If there's no downside, someone is blowing smoke.
Stewart Stremler