Week #6: Object-Oriented Programming Concepts

When I first thought of Object-Oriented Programming, I had no clue what this term means. However, as I started to study Computer Science, my knowledge in Object-Oriented Programming is improved. Object-Oriented Programming is a programming where we mainly focus on objects themselves instead of its way to get to the solution. Some examples of Object-Oriented Programming are C++, Java and Python.

Some basic components of Object-Oriented Programming are class, object, method, instance and recursion.

We already learnt what class is and how to create a class. I will implement only the init method for each class. I will also try to explain instances in Python.
For example,
class Cake:
    def __init__(self, candle, topping):
        """ (Cake, int, str) -> NoneType
       
        Initialize class Cake with candle and topping
        """
        self.candle = candle    # This can be considered as instance variable for specific instance
        self.topping = topping

We can use inheritance to use class Cake in other class like a class CheeseCake to pass the information that class Cake contains to a new class CheeseCake. I will also demonstrate class variable in class CheeseCake. Object-oriented Programming can have multiple inheritance.

class CheeseCake(Cake):
    Cake_List = []     #This is the variable class that is shared inside the class
    def __init__(self, candle, topping):
        """ (CheeseCake, int, str) -> NoneType

        Initialize class CheeseCake with candle and topping
        """
        Cake.__init__(self, candle, topping)

Method is based on object. For Python, we learnt that method is inside a class of an object.

class Feeling:
    def tired(self, feeling):
        #body implementation omitted

def tired(self, feeling) is considered a method since it is inside a class Feeling.

However, function is different compared to method. Function does not depend on object.
def hello(self, greeting):
    #body implementation omitted

def hello(self, greeting) is considered a function as it is not inside class of an object.

We can think of a method as a function that depends on an object like class.

Interestingly, recursion is also one of the basic concepts in Object-Oriented Programming.
As I've already covered this topic deeply in previous SLOG posts, I will skip this one.

Object-Oriented Programming has now become a significant part of our CS society. Although the only OOP I know is Python, I hope to learn Java and C++ during my third and fourth years at UofT. Another thing I found interesting is the number of OOP. There are more than 20 OOPs in the world. I guess I cannot master all of them. Instead, I will study 2 or 3 OOPs in depth for my future career.

Learning OOP is so interesting to me. Maybe, in the future, I hope to create a new OOP that is much easier than Python so that anyone can learn OOP.