INTRODUCTION TO
OBJECT-ORIENTED METHODOLOGY
Contents
1. Software Crisis
2. Conventional versus Object-Oriented approach
3. Object-Oriented Programming Languages
4. What is a good system?
5. Do we have good systems?
6. What are good systems like?
1
Literature
• Using UML, Software Engineering with Objects and Components,
Job Pooley, Perdita Stevens, Addison Wesley, 1999. Chapter 1
• Programming in an Object-Oriented Environment, R.Ege,
AP Professional, 1992. Chapter Introduction.
• Many other books on object-oriented methods
2
Software Crisis
Hardware technology has been revolutionised several times:
tubes,
discrete transistors,
…
integrated circuits,
large scale integration (LSI),
…
very large scale integration (VLSI).
Software technology lagged behind in matching these advances.
Software crisis: software is expensive, of insufficient quality,
hard to manage, etc.
Object-oriented methods are viewed as a possible step
to overcome the software crisis! 3
Task of software: to bridge the
gap between concepts in an
application and computer concepts
Software design principles
(abstraction, information hiding, modularization, etc.)
+
expressiveness of programming languages
(basic control structures, procedures and functions,
data structures, etc.)
↓
transition from application concepts to computer concepts is easier
♦late 1960s new object-oriented programming era
class groups data + procedures and functions
4
Conventional Versus Object-Oriented Approach
Example
Task: to develop new software that drives a simple version of the
radar screens used by air traffic controllers.
5
Design approach
Conventional Object-oriented
Goal identify major identify major
functions objects
Result gather radar info planes
update display display screen
radar receiver
Object plane:
data (identification, location, altitude, direction and speed)
+
functionalities (change of location, altitude, direction, speed,
displayed on the air traffic control screen)
6
Class captures all features which are common to all plane objects.
Object is an instance of a class.
the control loop
update location of each plane
display each plane on screen
Encapsulation: separation of inside and outside of an object
Inheritance: one class inherits structure of data and functionalities
of another
Polymorphism: the ability to manipulate objects of distinct classes
using only knowledge of their common properties
without regard for their exact class.
Object-oriented program is a collection of objects that
communicate by sending messages. 7
Object-Oriented Programming Languages
• Simula-67 (early 1960s) for discrete-event simulations
classes and inheritance
• Smalltalk (1970s)
messages, encapsulation
• C++
• Eiffel
• CLOS (Common Lisp Object System)
• Java
8
What is a good system?
9 A good system is one which meets its users' needs.
A good system should be:
– useful and usable
– reliable
– flexible
– affordable
– available
9
Do we have good systems?
• Advances in software have revolutionised many areas.
• Problems:
– systems which do not meet their users' requirements and/or
have technical failings
– flexibility is lacking
– maintenance
10
What are good systems like?
• A good system is a collection of modules.
– dependency
clients, servers
– coupling
good systems have low coupling
– interface
- defines some features of the module on which its
clients may rely
– encapsulation
information
hides the details of the implementation of an object
hiding – abstraction
denotes extracting essential properties of a concept
–cohesion
good systems have high cohesion
– reusable modules
11
Summary
• Object-oriented methods are viewed as a possible step to overcome
the software crisis.
• Task of software is to bridge the gap between concepts
in an application and computer concepts.
• The overall nature and the basic concepts of object-oriented methods
are introduced: objects and classes, encapsulation, inheritance,
polymorphism.
• The meaning of coupling, cohesion, information hiding
(encapsulation and abstraction) is introduced.
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