Objects and Classes

• Non-programmers have the upper hand here.  Learning object oriented programming is often difficult for structured programmers.
• Some differences:
• OO programs consist of objects.  Each object is an instance of a class.  In Java, for the most part, each class has its own file.  Thus, a Java program often is not one long file, as a procedural program is, but is multiple, smaller files.
• The above gives it the flexibility.  With a collection of files, many of which can inherit from each other, or be subclassed, switching in and out different classes, and thus, different parts of the program, is easy!
• Further, in Java, these files can be spread over multiple computers.  In addition, they can be leased or rented, and changes can be made automatically on one computer without having to change the files on the other computer.  That saves quite a bit of effort in distributed programming!
 
 So, what is an object?

Created by:  Brandan Jones January 4, 2002