Object Oriented Programming and Object Oriented Design

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Object Oriented ProgrammingandObject Oriented
Design

• Programming Languages
• Robert Dewar

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Object Oriented Programming

• OOP provides three fundamental functionalities
• Type extension
• Inheritance
• Dynamic Polymorphism

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Type Extension

• The problem, given an existing type, add
  additional capabilities retaining the original
• Make the extended type look as much like the
  original as possible
• Typical implementation, add fields or components
  to an existing record type.

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Faking Type Extension

• Could make a new record
• With new components
• And retaining the old type as one component
• type Ext is record Parent Old Newf
  Integerend record
• But that would not look much like original
• If Newobj is of type Ext
• Cannot say Ext.Value
• Must say Ext.Parent.Value

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Inheritance

• Goes along with type extension
• When a type is extended
• New type has all the operations of the old type,
  with the same meaning.
• Of course they do not know about the new fields,
  and do not reference them
• But most code that worked for the base type works
  for the extended type without change

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More on Inheritance

• Cannot always use operations of base type
• May need to mess with new fields
• In particular constructors must do so
• May have different semantics from new field
• Should be able to override inherited operations
  when type is extended
• Must override constructors
• Can also add new operations for new extended type

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Faking Inheritance

• If you fake type extension
• You could add definitions for every operation.
  Most would look like
• procedure Operate (X Ext) isbegin Operate
  (X.Parent)end Operate
• Thats rather annoying
• And generates a lot of junk

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Ad Hoc Polymorphism

• More familiar term is overloading
• Applies in this situation as follows
• If we have several types derived from a common
  parent with an operation Op
• Suppose Op is overridden for some types
• If a variable has a particular type, then the
  compiler can figure out what Op you mean from the
  type of the variable

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Dynamic Polymorphism

• Also called dynamic dispatching
• Addresses problems where you have data structures
  that are heterogenous and can contain different
  kinds of data.
• The data items are similar (e.g. obtained by type
  extension from a common base).
• And therefore have a similar set of operations.

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More on Dynamic Dispatching

• Now suppose we apply Op to a variable which at
  run time can have more than one possible type.
• What we want is that at runtime, the proper Op is
  picked, based on the current type of the object
  in the variable
• This is called dynamic dispatching

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Faking Dynamic Dispatching

• We could have record fields that contained
  pointers to the function to be called.
• Actually thats how dynamic dispatching is
  usually implemented
• Record contains a pointer to a table
• Table has (at fixed offsets for any given
  operation), address of function to be called.
• Different types have different tables

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An Approach to Compare

• The issue is that we want a variable that can
  have several different forms at runtime.
• And we have some code that depends on which
  particular form it has.
• And some code that is the same for all types.

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Using Variant Records

• Instead of N types extended from a given base
  type, use a variant record with N different
  possibilities.
• Fields of parent correspond to common fields in
  the variant record
• Code that does not depend on type just accesses
  these common fields

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Using Variant Records (cont)

• Code that is not common has a case statement
• case Object.DiscrimValue is when val1 gt when
  val2 gt end case

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Comparing the Approaches

• Consider that you have N operations and T types,
  then potentially you have NT different
  functions, but in practice many of the functions
  are the same for many types.
• Case statement means you have one unit per
  operation, using case to select
• Dynamic dispatching means you have one unit per
  type, with overridden operations.

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Comparing the Approaches (cont.)

• If you often add operations, the case statement
  approach is easier, add one new unit for new
  operation providing base code with case
  statements as required
• If you often add types, the dynamic dispatching
  approach is easier, add one new unit for new type
  overriding any operations where base code is
  wrong.

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OOP and Reuse

• By making your types extendible
• You increase reuse capabilities
• Instead of editing your code in places where it
  does not apply
• A client extends your types, and overrides your
  code where it does not apply

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Object Oriented Design

• Has nothing to do with OOP per se
• Relates not to language features but to the
  design approach
• It may be that OOP features are useful for object
  oriented design (OOD).

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OOD The Basic Idea

• The problem is modeled as a set of objects,
  preferably related to the structure of the
  problem, that represent real objects in the
  world. These objects have state.
• Computation proceeds by passing messages
  (requests, signals, commands, reports) between
  objects.

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How does OOD relate to OOP

• In the real world, objects are built by
  specializing more general notions
• A Toyota Previa is an instance of Car with extra
  info, which is an instance of Vehicle with extra
  information, etc.
• Type extension
• All cars work mostly the same
• Inheritance
• But for some features, cars differ
• Dynamic dispatching

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OOP Features in Ada 83

• Ada 83 provides features for
• Inheritance
• But does not provide
• Type extension
• Dynamic dispatching
• Inheritance is provided via derived types
• Other OOP features deliberately omitted
• Designers were very familiar with Simula-67
• But felt that genericity was a better approach

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Derived Types

• Declare a type and some operations on it
• type Base is .procedure Print (Arg
  Base)function New_Base return Base
• Now derive a new type
• type Mybase is new Base
• All operations are available on Mybase Including
  for example Print and New_Base
• But you can redefine (override) any inherited
  operations.

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OOP In Ada 95

• Genericity is not enough
• Market demands OOP features
• So in Ada 95 features are added for
• Type Extension
• Dynamic Dispatching
• But multiple inheritance is deliberately omitted

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Tagged Types in Ada 95

• A tagged type has a dynamic tag showing what type
  the object is. Otherwise it looks like a record
• type Base is tagged record X Integer Y
  Floatend record
• Can also have tagged private types
• type Base is tagged private
• Completion must be tagged record

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Type Extension

• A tagged type can be extended
• Using an extension of derived type idea
• type Mybase is new Base with record B
  Boolean D Durationend record
• All operations are inherited
• Except for constructors (functions returning
  values of type Base)
• Constructors must be overridden
• Since they need to know about the new fields

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How type Extension Works

• New fields are added at the end of the record,
  with original fields at the start.
• A subprogram that is only referencing the
  original fields can do this on the base type or
  any type derived from it.
• Because the original fields are always at the
  same offset from the start of the record.
• This model does not extend well to the case of
  multiple inheritance.

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Type extension and overloading

• Suppose a client has
• B Base
• M Mybase
• And there is an operation D that was not
  overridden
• D (B) D (M)
• Correct proc called, but in fact does same thing
• And there was an overridden operation O
• O (B) O (M)
• Correct proc called (static overloading)

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Converting Among Types

• Suppose we have an operation Q that is defined
  for Base and was not inherited
• Because it was not defined in original package
• And now we have a Mybase
• M Mybase
• And we want to call Q on M
• Q (M) -- no good, wrong type
• Q (Base (M)) -- thats ok, a view conversion

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Using conversion when Overriding

• Suppose we have a procedure Dump defined on Base
• For Mybase we want to dump the new fields and
  then call the original dump
• procedure Dump (X Mybase) isbegin dump
  new fields Dump (Base (X)) -- calls
  original Dumpend Dump

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Converting the Other Way NOT

• Suppose we have an operation M that is defined
  for Mybase, and we have an object of type Base
• B Base
• And we want to apply M to B
• You are out of luck, cant do it
• After all M might refer to extended fields!

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Class Variables

• Suppose you want a data structure that holds a
  mixture of objects of type Base and Mybase.
• The type BaseClass is a type that includes
  values of tagged type Base and all types derived
  from Base.
• type Bptr is access BaseClass
• BC_Ptr Bptr new Base(.)BC_Ptr new
  Mybase(.)

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Dynamic Dispatching

• If a subprogram, say Draw is defined as a
  primitive operation of type Base (defined along
  with type Base)
• Then not only is it inherited by any type derived
  from Base
• But it is also defined on BaseClass

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Special Treatment of BaseClass

• The subprogram
• procedure Draw (Arg BaseClass)
• That is derived automatically
• Has special semantics
• It is called with an object of the appropriate
  type (e.g. BC_Ptr.all)
• The result is to call the version of Draw that is
  appropriate to the actual run-time type of the
  argument (looks at the tag)

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How Dynamic Dispatching Works

• Tag is actually a pointer to a table
• One table for each type
• In our example, two tables
• One table for Base
• Different table for Mybase
• Table contains pointers to subprograms
• Put new ones at end
• First entries in Mybase table are a copy of the
  entries in the Base table unless overridden.

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Object-Oriented programming in C

• Classes as units of encapsulation
• Information Hiding
• Inheritance
• polymorphism and dynamic dispatching
• Storage management
• multiple inheritance

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Classes

• Encapsulation of type and related operations
• class point
• double x,y //
  private data members
• public
• point (int x0, int y0) //
  public methods
• point () x 0 y 0 // a
  constructor
• void move (int dx, int dy)
• void rotate (double alpha)
• int distance (point p)

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A class is a type objects are instances

• point p1 (10, 20) // call constructor
  with given arguments
• point p2 // call default
  constructor
• Methods are functions with an implicit argument
• p1.move (1, -1) // special syntax to
  indicate object
• // in other languages might write move
  (p1, 1, -1)
• // special syntax inspired by
  message-passing metaphor
• // objects are autonomous entities that
  exchange messages.

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Implementing methods

• No equivalent of a body each method can be
  defined separately
• void pointrotate (double alpha)
• x x cos (alpha) - y sin
  (alpha)
• y y cos (alpha) x cos (alpha)
• // x and y are the data members of the
  object on which the
• // method is being called.
• // if method is defined in class
  declaration, it is inlined.

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Constructors

• One of the best innovations of C
• special method (s) invoked automatically when an
  object of the class is declared
• point (int x1, int x2)
• point ()
• point (double alpha double r)
• point p1 (10,10), p2 p3 (pi / 4,
  2.5)
• Name of method is name of class
• Declaration has no return type.

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The target of an operation

• The implicit parameter in a method call can be
  retrieved through this
• class Collection
• Collection insert (thing x)
  // return reference
• modify data structure
• return this
  // to modified object
• my_collection.insert (x1).insert
  (x2)

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Static members

• Need to have computable attributes for class
  itself, independent of specific object e.g.
  number of objects created.
• Static qualifier indicates that entity is unique
  for the class
• static int num_objects 0
• point () num_objects //
  ditto for other constructors
• Can access static data using class name or object
  name
• if (point.num_objects ! p1.num_objects)
  error ()

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Classes and private types

• If all data members are private, class is
  identical to a private type visible methods,
  including assignment.
• A struct is a class with all public members
• How much to reveal is up to programmer
• define functions to retrieve (not modify) private
  data
• int xcoord () return x
• int ycoord () return y
• p2.x 15 //
  error, data member x is private

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Destructors

• If constructor allocates dynamic storage, need to
  reclaim it
• class stack
• int contents int sz
• public
• stack (int size) contents new
  int sz size
• void push ()
• int pop ()
• int size () return sz
• stack my_stack (100) // allocate
  storage dynamically
• // when is my_stack.contents
  released?

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If constructor uses resources, class needs a
destructor

• User cannot deallocate data because data member
  is private system must do it
• stack ( ) delete contents
• inventive syntax negation of constructor
• Called automatically when object goes out of
  scope
• Almost never called explicitly

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Copy and assignment

• point p3 (10,20)
• point p5 p3 //
  componentwise copy
• This can lead to unwanted sharing
• stack stack1 (200)
• stack stack2 stack1 //
  stack1.contents shared
• stack2.push (15) // stack1
  is modified
• Need to redefine assignment and copy

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Copy constructor

• stack (const stack s) // reference
  to existing object
• contents new int sz s.size()
• for (int I 0 I ltsz I) contents
  I s.contents I
• stack s1 (100)
• stack s2 s1 // invokes
  copy constructor

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Redefining assignment

• Assignment can also be redefined to avoid
  unwanted sharing
• Operator returns a reference, so it can be used
  efficiently in chained assignments one
  two three
• stack operator (const stack s)
• if (this ! s) //
  beware of self-assignment
• delete contents
  // discard old value
• contents new int sz s.size
  ()
• for (int I 0 I ltsz I)
  contents I s.contents I
• return this
• stack s1 (100), s2 (200) s1
  s2 // transfer contents

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Differences Between Ada and C

• C model much more specialized to the notion of
  OOD
• Distinguished first parameter is object involved
• No easy way of defining binary operators
• Prefix notation nice for objects but awkward for
  values
• C allows multiple inheritance

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Doing Multiple Inheritance in Ada

• We can have one field that we add be an instance
  of some other base type.
• We can use generics to parametrize this
  additional type
• Worked out examples in Ada 95 Rationale
• Which you can find at www.adapower.com

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OOP in Java

• To be supplied!