Objectives

This section presents an overview and classification of object-oriented languages. It starts with a discussion of the various viewpoints from which the notion object-oriented may be approached, and characterizes the research activities that have originally been inspired by the language Simula. A large number of actual languages are briefly discussed.

Points to emphasize

Hints

In presenting the overview you may need to explain the various underlying paradigms, such as frame-based knowledge representation techniques and distributed programming issues in somewhat more detail. In particular, languages such as Lisp and Prolog which underly a number of hybrid extensions may not be sufficiently known to your audience.

Questions

  1. What are the basic characteristics of object-oriented languages?
  2. How would you classify object-oriented languages? Name a few representatives of each category.
  3. What do you consider to be the major characteristic of the object model supported by C++? Explain.

Comments

It is noteworthy that the hybrid languages, such as Objective-C and C++, and also the Lisp-based extensions, have attracted much interest. Partially, this may be explained by the need for a gradual transition between paradigms. Another subject for discussion, I would say.