Object-oriented Programming - OOP Languages

OOP Languages

Simula (1967) is generally accepted as the first language to have the primary features of an object-oriented language. It was created for making simulation programs, in which what came to be called objects were the most important information representation. Smalltalk (1972 to 1980) is arguably the canonical example, and the one with which much of the theory of object-oriented programming was developed. Concerning the degree of object orientation, the following distinctions can be made:

• Languages called "pure" OO languages, because everything in them is treated consistently as an object, from primitives such as characters and punctuation, all the way up to whole classes, prototypes, blocks, modules, etc. They were designed specifically to facilitate, even enforce, OO methods. Examples: Eiffel, Emerald., JADE, Obix, Scala, Smalltalk
• Languages designed mainly for OO programming, but with some procedural elements. Examples: C++, Java, C#, VB.NET, Python.
• Languages that are historically procedural languages, but have been extended with some OO features. Examples: Visual Basic (derived from BASIC), Fortran, Perl, COBOL 2002, PHP, ABAP.
• Languages with most of the features of objects (classes, methods, inheritance, reusability), but in a distinctly original form. Examples: Oberon (Oberon-1 or Oberon-2) and Common Lisp.
• Languages with abstract data type support, but not all features of object-orientation, sometimes called object-based languages. Examples: Modula-2, Pliant, CLU.