Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucbvax.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ucbvax!wildbill From: wildbill@ucbvax.ARPA (William J. Laubenheimer) Newsgroups: net.lang,net.lang.st80 Subject: Definition of Buzzwords: "Object-Oriented" Message-ID: <4288@ucbvax.ARPA> Date: Mon, 21-Jan-85 17:00:05 EST Article-I.D.: ucbvax.4288 Posted: Mon Jan 21 17:00:05 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 22-Jan-85 06:19:26 EST Distribution: net Organization: University of California at Berkeley Lines: 33 Xref: watmath net.lang:1280 net.lang.st80:152 I have recently been involved in some discussions in which the topic of so-called "object-oriented" languages and programming techniques has been explored. Despite the fact that "everybody knows" that Smalltalk-80 is "object-oriented" and "everybody knows" (or pretends that they do) what "object-oriented programming" is, this same group of "everybody"s is having a hard time coming up with a rigorous definition of those terms which goes beyond one of the two following: 1) The term is self-explanatory: the orientation of the language/program is towards the "object". This causes the discussion to move in the direction of defining an "object", and how exactly the language or program is oriented in that direction. 2) The term is defined by example: if somebody says a language is "object- oriented" and most people agree, then the language is object-oriented (the "science fiction" definition approach - "science fiction" is what "science fiction authors" write, "science fiction editors" buy, and "science fiction fans" read). Neither of these approaches makes anybody particularly happy. Nobody's been able to find an accepted definition in the literature, either. So, the question is: Is there a definition of the term "object-oriented" which is both descriptive of all current uses of that term and accepted by all who currently use it? If not, can such a definition be constructed? I would be interested in hearing from anybody who has any ideas relating to this topic. Bill Laubenheimer ----------------------------------------UC-Berkeley Computer Science ...Killjoy went that-a-way---> ucbvax!wildbill