Reviews of computing technology: Object-oriented technology

摘要

A useful metaphor in introducing object-oriented concepts is the idea of a computer hardware manufacturer assembling products from an existing stock of electronic parts. In this analogy, think of the parts as pieces of computer software and of the finished products as computer applications. Like its counterpart, the object is capable of performing its specific function in a wide variety of different applications. The advantages to assembling hardware using a set of prebuilt parts are obvious. The design process is greatly simplified in this scenario, since the designer needs only to carry the design down to the chip level, rather than to the transistor level. As a result, the designer is free to develop a more reliable and feature rich product. Also, since the component parts are reused in several different products, the parts can be made more robust and subjected to more rigorous testing than would be economically feasible for a part used in only one piece of equipment. Additionally, maintenance on the resulting systems is simplified because of the part-level consistency from one type of equipment to another. The remainder of this document introduces the techniques used to develop objects, the benefits of the technology, outstanding issues that remain with the technology, industry direction for the technology, and the impact that object-oriented technology is likely to have on the organization. While going through this material, the reader will find it useful to remember the parts analogy and to keep in mind that the overall purpose of object-oriented technology is to create software parts and to construct applications using those parts.