Beginning iOS Programming For Dummies

Chapter 2

Object-Oriented Design Principles

In This Chapter

Common software development methods

Essential object-oriented design concepts

Transitioning to OO from basic procedural designs

In its early days, computer programming was viewed as a tool for solving problems. You had a mathematical problem to solve? You wrote a program. You had another problem to solve? You just wrote another program. As software systems became more complex and longer lasting, developers needed better ways to develop software, including better ways to design software. That’s where object-orientation came in. It provided a way to design and structure programs that were less complex and more amenable to growth and change.

This chapter explains object-orientation. It covers what it is, why it's considered a good thing to do, and how to apply it in practice.

Basic Object-Oriented Concepts

Object-oriented (or OO) design involves identifying and defining objects that represent information together with behavior, or how this information is manipulated, and designing the interactions (known as collaborations) among objects so that the application can do what it needs to do. What an object does is defined by ...