Chapter 2. The Basics of Object-Oriented Programming

In this chapter, you will learn the following:

• A brief history of computer programming

• Why object-oriented programming has developed

• The three cornerstones of OOP

• How a small OOP program written in Visual Basic .NET works

• The part that classes play in Visual Basic .NET

This chapter begins exploring the world of object-oriented programming (OOP). It starts that journey with a brief history of programming, which will help you understand the development path that languages have taken in the past 50 years. After all, there's a reason OOP is gaining such wide acceptance. You will also learn how the problems that have arisen in the past 50 years are best addressed by the OOP paradigm. This chapter then discusses the major elements of OOP and concludes with a sample OOP program written with Visual Basic .NET.

All this is pretty neat stuff, so let's start the journey that leads you to becoming an OOP programmer.