
Chapter 1
Software Objects and
Real-World Representations
1.1 Introduction
This chapter draws an analogy between objects in software development
and electronic devices, and to physical objects in general.
remote control Objects can be controlled by an application via appli-
cation programming interfaces (API) similar to controlling a television set
via a remote control. Every button invokes a “method” on the electronic
device, while the functionality is hidden.
We introduce a video application to demonstrate the difference between
developing programs and developing objects. The virtual machine repre-
sents the actual programming environment referencing