Object Oriented Programming

A language that has features not included in structured languages such as inheritance and polymorphism.

A software design philosophy that focuses on resuable blocks of code, called objects, which encapsulate some set of related data with functions that manipulate that data. Object Oriented programming languages include C++, Python, Java, and Smalltalk. Visual Basic only partially supports this design until the advent of VB.NET.

There are 3 major phases in the process of translating a programming problem into classes. These are

Why Object Oriented software?

Object Oriented programming yields slower programs. Using classes does cause overhead. This causes some programmers to remain programming in C. There are many reasons to use the STL supplied in C++ (that uses classes). For more advantages of C++ over C click here

Except that classes cause overhead, there are many advantages on other areas:

Using the references from [1]:

Faster development [2]
Increased Quality [2]
Easier maintenance [2]
Enhanced modifiability [2]
Exploit power of OOPs [3]
Reuse of software and designs, frameworks [3]. Use of design patterns.
Systems more change resilient, evolvable [3]
Reduced development risks for complex systems, integration spread out [3]
Appeals to human cognition, naturalness [3]

OOP links

References

1) http://www.objectfaq.com/oofaq2/ ,Object Oriented FAQ, section 0.8: What Are The Benefits Of Object-Orientation?
2) Harmon P. 1993. Objects In Action: Commercial Applications Of Object- Oriented Technologies. ISBN 0-201-63336-1.
3) Booch G. Object-Oriented Analysis And Design With Applications. 1993 Benjamin Cummings. ISBN 0-8053-5340-2.

last edited (December 24, 2006) by bilderbikkel, Number of views: 2571, Current Rev: 2 (Diff)

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