Introduction to OO concepts

What does it mean to be ``object-oriented''? The ``big three'' concepts are encapsulation, polymorphism, and inheritance, but the text ``Fundamentals of Object-Oriented Design in UML'' [12] specifies that the following criteria are necessary for a language to be considered object oriented.

1. Encapsulation - the grouping of related ideas into unit. Encapsulating attributes and behaviors.
2. Inheritance - a class can inherit its behavior from a superclass (parent class) that it extends.
3. Polymorphism - literally means ``many forms''.
4. Information/implementation hiding - the use of encapsulation to keep implementation details from being externally visible.
5. State retention - the set of values an object holds.
6. Oject identity - an object can be identified and treated as a distinct entity.
7. Message passing - the ability to send messages from one object to another.
8. Classes - the templates/blueprints from which objects are created.
9. Genericity - the construction of a class so that one or more of the classes it uses internally is supplied only at run time.
10. Test here
11. More testing here

• Encapsulation
• Inheritance
• Polymorphism
• Abstraction with objects
• Message passing