Introducing object-oriented

Everyone knows what an object is: a tangible thing that we can sense, feel, and manipulate. The earliest objects we interact with are typically baby toys. Wooden blocks, plastic shapes, and over-sized puzzle pieces are common first objects. Babies learn quickly that certain objects do certain things: bells ring, buttons are pressed, and levers are pulled.

The definition of an object in software development is not terribly different. Software objects may not be tangible things that you can pick up, sense, or feel, but they are models of something that can do certain things and have certain things done to them. Formally, an object is a collection of data and associated behaviors.

So, knowing what an object is, what does it mean to be object-oriented? In the dictionary, oriented means directed toward. So object-oriented means functionally directed toward modeling objects. This is one of many techniques used for modeling complex systems. It is defined by describing...