> it's ironic that the object-oriented guys have such
> a tangled web of external dependencies.

i think that's absolutely typical of most large o-o things i've
had to read: not just external dependencies, but a real tangle
of snippets of code in overridden methods in a cascading class
hierarchy.  hard for reasoning; bad for maintenance.   i suppose it must be easier
to write (although i've never found that to be true myself),
and that's why it's so popular.  i don't really know. it's finally a mystery to me.
but we digress...