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8.12: Glossary

  • Page ID
    17104
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    object-oriented language:
    A language that provides features, such as user-defined classes and method syntax, that facilitate object-oriented programming.
    object-oriented programming:
    A style of programming in which data and the operations that manipulate it are organized into classes and methods.
    method:
    A function that is defined inside a class definition and is invoked on instances of that class.
    subject:
    The object a method is invoked on.
    operator overloading:
    Changing the behavior of an operator like + so it works with a user-defined type.
    type-based dispatch:
    A programming pattern that checks the type of an operand and invokes different functions for different types.
    polymorphic:
    Pertaining to a function that can work with more than one type.
    information hiding
    The principle that the interface provided by an object should not depend on its implementation, in particular the representation of its attributes.

    This page titled 8.12: Glossary is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Allen B. Downey (Green Tea Press) .

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