Joel Seidman wrote: > Are there specific > references I can cite when I argue for this? (I don't have enough > authority/stature, and saying "some guy on the internet said so" has never > worked well for me.) Or is this just basic stuff "everybody knows"? > > One thing that you might want to look at is the 'rule of Demeter'. This is a rule that is supposed to improve program quality that prohibits most forms of multi-level indirection A -> B -> C; See: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/research/demeter/ I suppose that adherence to such a rule would greatly reduce the number of with's. Al