Article Free Access Share on A discussion of On the Purpose of Object-Oriented Analysis Authors: Dave Thomas Object Technology International Object Technology InternationalView Profile , Adele Goldberg ParcPlace Systems ParcPlace SystemsView Profile , James Coplien Bell Labs Bell LabsView Profile , Peter Coad Apple, Inc. Apple, Inc.View Profile , Geir Magne Høydalsvik Univ. of Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway Univ. of Trondheim, Trondheim, NorwayView Profile Authors Info & Claims OOPSLA '93: Proceedings of the eighth annual conference on Object-oriented programming systems, languages, and applicationsOctober 1993Pages 256–258https://doi.org/10.1145/165854.165899Published:01 October 1993Publication History 1citation664DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations1Total Downloads664Last 12 Months15Last 6 weeks2 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF

Object-oriented languages provide facilities for code reuse, abstraction, encapsulation, instantiation, polymorphism, and inheritance. Major differences between pure object-oriented languages like Smalltalk and hybrid languages like C++, Objective-C, and Object Pascal are discussed. It is argued that the inclusion of both pointer and nonpointer types and the lack of garbage collection in hybrid systems is a major impediment to reliability, correctness, and extensibility. Hybrid systems lack design environments that permit evolutionary code development, which is a major impediment to rapid, and therefore cost-effective, software development and to the development of reusable libraries.>

In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of Orwell, a configuration management tool for multiperson Smalltalk projects. Although the system described has been implemented for Smalltalk, the design is applicable to other languages such as C++, Objective-C or ADA. Smalltalk is well recognized as a productive programming environment for an individual programmer, but its lack of team support is currently a major obstacle in using Smalltalk for a large software project. To support multiperson Smalltalk programming, Orwell provides both source and object code sharing as well as version control on a network of personal workstations. Class ownership is used as the primary means for dividing work among programmers during the lifecycle of a project. Orwell also supports groups of programmers not physically connected to a common file server. We describe our implementation which preserves the productive exploratory environment of Smalltalk. Seamless integration and performance are essential for Orwell to be accepted and used by Smalltalk programmers.

Programming languages for robotics applications are continually being developed and extended as the applications become more sophisticated. Language evolution is proceeding along two directions: (1) providing more and better facilities for task-level as opposed to robot-level programming and (2) providing better facilities for simulation, graphics and symbolic manipulation. The trend makes it clear that the full capabilities of a general purpose programming language are needed. Instead of developing a new language from the ground up, it is easier and more productive to take an existing language with all the requisite general purpose facilities and specialize it for robotics. Because of its symbolic processing facilities, its object-oriented nature, its usefulness as a simulation language, and its sophisticated graphical interface, Smalltalk is an ideal candidate for specialization. We discuss in more detail why this is the case and we show how a programming language that approaches the power of AL can be imbedded in Smalltalk within 2-4 person-months of effort.

This paper describes the application of object-oriented programming to the design of a multiprocessor ESM testbed. The ESM testbed uses an object-oriented development environment which integrates Smalltalk and C language tools with the Harmony real-time operating system in a shared memory multiprocessor. All development for an application is done using personal computers which are themselves processors in the real-time testbed. We first discuss two aspects of the ESM testbed: a framework for investigating ESM signal processing algorithms based on an object-oriented emitter database and blackboard objects which implement probabilistic reasoning; and an object-oriented ESM simulation environment which illustrates the use of object-oriented techniques for the development of complex real-time systems. In the second part of the paper we describe our software engineering approach and tools. Throughout the paper, the role played by object-oriented programming in the design of hybrid multiprocessors is highlighted.

In recent years, object-oriented programming languages and object-oriented program design have become increasingly popular. Dialects of many popular programming languages are now available which support the major concepts of object-oriented programming; namely message-passing, classes, generic operations and inheritance. Experience in the paradigm is increasingly supporting the view that object-oriented programming may be to the 80's what structured programming was to the 70's in terms of its influence on software development.