Conclusion

Object-oriented programming is, perhaps, the most important software development in the last two decades. Object-oriented programming is a very effective form of software creation. The efficiency of OOP is a result of the high level of modularization that can be achieved by using separate objects with their own state, behavior, and responsibility structures. This modularization makes possible the creation of extensive libraries and a high level of code reuse. Furthermore, it allows a team of progra mmers to work in parallel, spending a minimal amount of time on integration. Thus, the total amount of time spent on a software project is significantly reduced.

Because of the greater efficiency of writing software in OOP, object-oriented programs have found their way into a large number of modern applications. OOP programs have been particularly successful in very complex environments where code execution of ten has to proceed in a non-linear fashion. As a consequence, modern real-time programs, as well as most of the Internet-related software, are written in OOP.

However, object-oriented programming is not limited to the creation of specific languages such as Smalltalk, or even to the existence of new coding methods, such as classes, inheritance, polymorphism, and the like. Rather, OOP is a new paradigm, a dif ferent approach to programming. It is a new model of the real world, which forces programmers to think about their work in new ways. Perhaps even more important is the possibility of applying the modeling techniques of OOP to problems outside the realm of software coding. Object-oriented project management techniques are one example of such a successful application of the OO paradigm.

A consequence of the need for better, more sophisticated control techniques, the rise of object-oriented programming attests to the growing importance of computers in the modern culture. OOP, in turn, has proven itself capable of augmenting our percep tion of computers, but it still falls short of solving the possibly insoluble dilemma of human control over the computer amid the rapid increase in the computer's potential.

While it is difficult to look into the future, it seems certain to the authors of this paper that the role of object-oriented programming can only grow as the technological problems faced by our society become more and more complicated. We anticipate that the object-oriented paradigm will soon be successfully applied to artificial intelligence problems, and smarter, more efficient AI machines will result. We also look forward to the application of the object-oriented model to more problems outside of the traditional software realm.