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Object and Class aren't necessarily the same thing. Back in the 1980's when object oriented programming started to be talked about by practicing software engineers writing real production code, th...
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#2: Post edited
by
Canina
·
2022-01-28T17:38:05Z (almost 3 years ago)
- <i>Object</i> and <i>Class</i> aren't necessarily the same thing. Back in the 1980's when object oriented programming started to be talked about by practicing software engineers writing real production code, the word "class" didn't come up much. That got popularized by C++ and Java, where class actually has a specific meaning.
In it's basic form, object oriented programming is a means of tying a group of subroutines to the template of a data structure. You could have different instances of these structures, and the routines appeared to belong to these structures. Instead of calling a routine to add 5 to some number, the object oriented way is to tell the number to <i>"go add 5 to yourself"</i>. The compiler would be aware of this. It would generate code to call the add-5 routine and pass the specific data to act upon in a standard way.- Note that the above doesn't require anything called a "class". Java and C++ made this basic concept popular with built-in support, added additional constructs around it, and used names like "class" and "method". Young-uns today that never had to trudge to school barefoot in the snow uphill both ways forget that these concepts weren't engraved on stone tablets handed to us via some mystic ritual.
- Various names in computing were used in different ways, especially early on. Often what we have today is the names used by one popular implementation. That doesn't make it the only right way in the general world of computer science.
- <i>Object</i> and <i>Class</i> aren't necessarily the same thing. Back in the 1980's when object oriented programming started to be talked about by practicing software engineers writing real production code, the word "class" didn't come up much. That got popularized by C++ and Java, where class actually has a specific meaning.
- In its basic form, object oriented programming is a means of tying a group of subroutines to the template of a data structure. You could have different instances of these structures, and the routines appeared to belong to these structures. Instead of calling a routine to add 5 to some number, the object oriented way is to tell the number to <i>"go add 5 to yourself"</i>. The compiler would be aware of this. It would generate code to call the add-5 routine and pass the specific data to act upon in a standard way.
- Note that the above doesn't require anything called a "class". Java and C++ made this basic concept popular with built-in support, added additional constructs around it, and used names like "class" and "method". Young-uns today that never had to trudge to school barefoot in the snow uphill both ways forget that these concepts weren't engraved on stone tablets handed to us via some mystic ritual.
- Various names in computing were used in different ways, especially early on. Often what we have today is the names used by one popular implementation. That doesn't make it the only right way in the general world of computer science.
#1: Initial revision
by
Olin Lathrop
·
2022-01-28T13:36:56Z (almost 3 years ago)
<i>Object</i> and <i>Class</i> aren't necessarily the same thing. Back in the 1980's when object oriented programming started to be talked about by practicing software engineers writing real production code, the word "class" didn't come up much. That got popularized by C++ and Java, where class actually has a specific meaning. In it's basic form, object oriented programming is a means of tying a group of subroutines to the template of a data structure. You could have different instances of these structures, and the routines appeared to belong to these structures. Instead of calling a routine to add 5 to some number, the object oriented way is to tell the number to <i>"go add 5 to yourself"</i>. The compiler would be aware of this. It would generate code to call the add-5 routine and pass the specific data to act upon in a standard way. Note that the above doesn't require anything called a "class". Java and C++ made this basic concept popular with built-in support, added additional constructs around it, and used names like "class" and "method". Young-uns today that never had to trudge to school barefoot in the snow uphill both ways forget that these concepts weren't engraved on stone tablets handed to us via some mystic ritual. Various names in computing were used in different ways, especially early on. Often what we have today is the names used by one popular implementation. That doesn't make it the only right way in the general world of computer science.