Chapter 1. Objects

Before we go into the discussion on drivers, we need to first briefly review objects, which are mentioned extensively throughout the book.

1.1 Nature of an Object

One of the fundamental ideas in software component engineering is the use of objects. But just what is an object? There doesn’t seem to be a universally accepted idea as to what an object is. The view that the computer scientist Grady Booch (1991) takes is that an object is defined primarily by three characteristics: its state, its behavior, and its identity. The fundamental unit of analysis, in most cognitive theories, is the information-processing component. A component is an elementary information process that operates on the internal representation of objects ...

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