Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
What Orientation Should Ada Objects Take? |
| Authors: |
Rosen, J. P. rosen@enst.enst.fr |
| Source: |
Communications of the ACM. Nov92, Vol. 35 Issue 11, p71-76. 6p. |
| Subjects: |
Object-oriented methods (Computer science), Ada (Computer program language), Programming languages, Systems design, Data structures, Abstract data types (Computer science), Computer software |
| Abstract: |
Ada language has often been blamed for not being really object oriented, in the sense that it provides only static inheritance through derived types, but not a full inheritance mechanism. On the other hand, object-oriented design does not use inheritance. Many Ada teams have used this method successfully, feeling that their designs are really oriented according to abstractions of real-life objects, and still do not feel a need for inheritance. This makes them quite uneasy when reading about the necessary features of object orientation. What actually makes software "object oriented" is that the basic conceptual units are abstractions of real-life objects. Since an object can only be described by a set of properties and a set of actions it has on other objects, an abstraction of an object is a programming unit that gathers both data structures and program structures. This is achieved through the use of abstract data types which provide encapsulation and locality, a property that simplifies maintenance since all properties of a given aspect of the problem domain belong to a single piece of software. |
| Database: |
Engineering Source |
