Week 3: Object-Oriented Programing

Object-oriented programing creates objects as classes.  The objects have data and functions.  The objects represent something in the real world, and functions act on the object to represent things that would occur in the real world.  For example, Toy and Dog from exercise one are objects and the Dog can play with Toy, just like a real dog. 

When creating objects, an easy way to start is to brainstorm different properties of the object.  The noun will be the class name, the adjectives that describe the object will be the attributes, and the verbs will be the operations or methods.  For example, a child would have class name Child, attributes age, gender, height etc., and have methods play, cry, grow, etc.

For the most part, I understand object-oriented programing.  I struggled a little with defining classes in CSC108, but I feel like exercise one and the labs for this course have helped me better understand the concepts.  I like how the classes mirror real objects because it is easy to see how clients can apply the classes.  For example, you make a class Calendar with attributes day, week, month, etc. and methods like adding and removing events from the calendar.  This class is exactly the same as a tangible calendar and a client could use Calendar in the same way they would use a paper calendar.

My one concern is my understanding of the readings.  I find that some of the articles have a lot of information about other programming languages that I don’t know, or about different aspects of programming that have not been covered in lectures.  Hopefully, these concepts will become clearer in next weeks lectures and lab.