CST06105 – Fundamentals of OOP

Lecture 2
Software Programming Languages

Dr. Msury Mahunnah

e-mail: [email protected]
course website: https://mahunnah.wordpress.com/
 Background
• The fist object oriented language was called Simula 67
• It was developed in the 1960’s by the Norwegian Computing
Centre
• Simula 67 contained most of the important concepts and
techniques used in present day object-oriented languages
• Research then progressed and led to languages like C++,
Visual Basic and many others
• The popularity of such languages was enhanced by the
increasing use of GUI’s and windows applications
 Conventional Programming
• Conventional methods of programming used imperative
languages, where programs were written in terms of
procedures
• Programs were sequential, running to completion branching
and loping according to the programs instructions
• A flaw in this type of program was that large programs
became complex and unmanageable
• Also global variables could be accessed and changed during
execution so results might no be valid
 Modern Programming
• Today programming is done in and for a windows environment
• Windows is an event driven environment and user interaction is
required to represent the programming
• Procedural languages do not possess the necessary constructs to deal
with this style of programming and are unsuitable for windows
applications
• Object-oriented programming techniques overcome these difficulties
and make it easier for the programmer to implement good
programming practices
 Object-Oriented Programming
• This is a programming methodology
• It compels the programmer to think in a different way
about software and its development
• OO programming enables the creation of software that
can be more readily understood and shared
• OO programming directly models the program and is
centred around objects and data associated with them
 Objects
• An object is a logical unit that contains both data and the code that manipulates it
• The 2 are regarded as a single unit
• Objects steams from techniques with attempting to solve real-life events
employing everyday objects
• Objects share 2 characteristics, they have:
– A state (data)
– A behaviour (operations)

Object State Behaviour

Dog Size, name, colour, breed Barking, playing, sniffing,

hunting

Car Make, model, colour, Accelerating, braking,

engine size reversing, gear changing
 Desk Characteristics
• A desk
– You know where it is, it has a certain size and colour
– If we move the desk we change the location property, if we paint it
we change the colour property
– When we change the attributes of a desk we don’t change the fact
that it is still a desk
 Object Characteristics
• Windows objects contain 2 parts:
– Attributes (data)
– Operations (methods)
• Here is a schematic view of an object

Objects communicate with one another using messages

 Classes
• Objects of the same kind share many characteristics
– A car is just one of many cars
• A Blueprint can be produced to accommodate objects, such a
blueprint is called a Class
• Using OO terminology a car object is an Instance of the class of objects
known as cars
• A main class or Super-class can have Sub-classes where all sub-classes
have common features based on the super-class
• The art of OO programming is determining the best way to divide a
program into classes speeding up the development time and producing
fewer lines of code meaning less errors and lower maintenance costs
 Car Example
• Suppose there exits a class called Car that contains instances
of types of cars, such as four-wheel drive, saloon
• The class car would become a super-class and the various
types of car become sub-class
 Libraries
• OO Languages depend greatly on the concept of Class
Libraries
• These are sets of classes that can be used by developers as
common building blocks for complex applications
• This is like the idea of module libraries used in procedural
programming
 Procedural Languages
• In the procedural language the program is considered as a series of
blocks of code that process collections of data
• Programs carryout processing according to a defined sequence of
events until the program terminates

Similarities of Object-Oriented and Procedural:

 OO languages have all the high level control structures for iteration and selection
available to procedural languages
 OO languages operate by changing values of variables by using assign statements
 Both languages are problem specific
 Differences
• Differences of Object-Oriented and Procedural:
– Object-Oriented concepts are harder to learn
– In procedural language a program module is a free standing unit that can be
compiled and executed. In OO language a module is always part of a hierarchy
– In OO programming data and code are not regarded as separate, both are
encapsulated into an object that consists of data and operations
– Assignment statements may look the same but their interpretation is different
– If a program written in a procedural language encounters a problem and
crashes that is the end of the program. In OO language if an error occurs in
the code for a specific object then only that object will be affected, the
program will continue to operate
 Event Driven Languages
• With the increasing use of GUI’s new event driven languages, like
Visual Basic, have emerged to accommodate the new style of
programming
• Since GUI’s are object based then object-oriented techniques feature in
this environment
• In event driven environments the user executes an event procedure,
such as clicking a mouse, to run part of the code
• Event driven programs are also referred to Asynchronous
Programming as the computer waits for an event to occur and
responds to them as they happen
 Event Dispatcher
• An event driven program consists of smaller procedures that respond to
events triggered by the user
• These procedures are called event handlers and are executed by a
program called a Dispatcher
• The event dispatcher is called whenever an event is triggered
• The dispatcher can be regarded as a large programming loop that waits
for an event to occur then responds accordingly
• If an event is triggered while others are being processed then it is put
into an Event Queue and all events in the queue are processed in order
 Event Driven Programming
• Event-driven programs do not have a set sequence of instructions to
execute
• Event programming an object-oriented programming are linked in GUI
systems
• Languages like Visual Basic provide support for event-driven
programming through the use of objects, classes and methods
• Inputs to event-driven programs come from event sources that require
individual event handlers to process them
• Object-oriented programming techniques are evident in GUI
programming and work in harmony with event-driven procedures
• It is difficult to distinguish between object-oriented and event-driven
programs
 Machine Oriented Languages
• At low level the focus is on the computer rather than the problem
• There is only 1 programming language that any computer can understand and
execute, that is binary machine code
• This is the lowest possible level of language
• An enhancement to binary was assembly code, it used simple mnemonics to
represent actions
• These mnemonics varied from computer to computer as each had a different
Instruction Set relating to the processor
• Machine code and assembly code are machine dependant and are referred to as
Machine-Oriented Languages
• Low level languages run very fast and make efficient use of the computers
resources, however they have no high level features available to them
 Low Level Languages
• Low level languages are:
– Machine dependant
– Difficult to program and debug
– Not complied or interpreted
– Demand a large expense of time on the part of the programmer
– Contain no high level constructs
– Execute extremely fast
– Produce lines of code that have a 1:1 relationship with machine
instructions
 Machine Code
• This was the first code used to program a computer
• Machine instructions were in binary form consisting of opcodes
(operational codes and addresses)
• A 16-bit instruction may have had the following structure
0001 000100110001
Op Code Address

The main problems associated with machine code were:

• Programs would only run on specific machines
• Low level programs were not easy to read , maintain or adapt
• Programmers found it difficult to remember opcodes
 Assembly Code
• Assembly language programming addressed the problem of
remembering all the opcodes
• A mnemonic responded to the type of operation, this made writing
and debugging programs easier
• Mnemonics have to be translated into machine code before the
processor can carry out instructions, this was achieved using an
Assembler
– An assembler is a program designed to produce machine code
• Assembly language programs have fast execution and make efficient
use of computer resource
• An assembly code statement has a 1:1 relationship with a machine
language statement
 High Level Languages
• It became apparent that language development should now include
operations more suited to the application program instead of hardware
• That lack of portability between different computers was a deciding
factor in the development of HLL’s
• High level, imperative languages were designed as block-structured
(procedures) and the lines of code resembled English sentences and
mathematical expressions, that were much easier to read and debug
• Each line of high level code translated into 10-20 lines of low level code
allowing programmers more flexibility
• HLL had slow execution times since they had to be translated
 HLL Advantages
• The use of HLL started the programming revolution and offered many
advantages:
– The use of statements and keywords using English words
– Access to high level control structures, such as selection & iteration
– The use of high level data structures such as arrays, records and
files
– The capability of defining types and dynamic data structures, such
as stacks and queues
 The Computing Explosion
• Progression through the 1960’s and 70’s seen a dramatic increase in:
– the number of programming languages
– the need to write easier and faster error-free programs
• Other notable factors in this increase were:
– Compiler techniques were becoming more refined
– Escalation of new hardware technologies
– Expansion of specialised software applications
• Programs ran with reduced efficiency but with decreasing costs and
increasing hardware speeds
 4th Generation Languages
• 4GL’s were developed to meet the special needs of data processing, with such
applications as DB, SS and GR
• They were non-procedural and designed in a way that users could specify the
nature of the problem in a simple manner without having to understand the
computer processing
• Most 4GL’s were written for specific purposes:
– Database application tools
– End-user tools like query languages
– Report generators
– Application generators, sometimes known as RAD (Rapid Application
Development)
• 4GL’s have evolved and are now responsible for many of the built-in features that
can be access from a menu or icon in GUI systems
 Beyond 4GL
• The terms 4GL and now 5GL are used to define stages in computer
language development
• There are various 5GL’s that exist:
– Natural language systems involved in Artificial Intelligence
– They encompass event-driven, object-oriented and GUI’s
– 5GL is programming that uses a visual or graphical interface to
create source code
• With the rapid use of the Internet web-based languages were
developed, they include scripting and mark-up languages
 Language Criteria
• The criteria that might be used to decide if a language is popular is:
– It should be available to run on a variety of hardware
– It should be easy to learn
– It should be simple to implement
– It should require modest computer resources
– Its code should be efficient at running