Chapter 8: Software Objects: The Critter Caretaker Program

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Overview

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a different way of thinking about programming. It's a modern methodology that's been embraced by the software industry and is used in the creation of the majority of new, commercial software. The basic building block in OOP is the software object—often just called an object. In this chapter, you'll take your first steps toward understanding OOP as you learn about objects. Specifically, you'll learn to do the following:

• Create classes to define objects

• Write methods and create attributes for objects

• Instantiate objects from classes

• Restrict access to an object's attributes

• Work with both new-style and old-style classes