What makes a language Object-Oriented?

Question

Since debate without meaningful terms is meaningless, I figured I would point at the elephant in the room and ask: What exactly makes a language \"object-oriented\"? I\'m no

Answer 1

Archetype

The ability to express real-world scenarios in code.

foreach(House house in location.Houses)
{
 foreach(Deliverable mail in new Mailbag(new Deliverable[]
              {
              GetLetters(), 
              GetPackages(), 
              GetAdvertisingJunk()
              })
 {
    if(mail.AddressedTo(house))
    {
        house.Deliver(mail);
    }
 }
}

-

foreach(Deliverable myMail in GetMail())
{
    IReadable readable = myMail as IReadable;
    if ( readable != null )
    {
        Console.WriteLine(readable.Text);
    }
}

Why?

To help us understand this more easily. It makes better sense in our heads and if implemented correctly makes the code more efficient, re-usable and reduces repetition.

To achieve this you need:

• Pointers/References to ensure that this == this and this != that.
• Classes to point to (e.g. Arm) that store data (int hairyness) and operations (Throw(IThrowable))
• Polymorphism (Inheritance and/or Interfaces) to treat specific objects in a generic fashion so you can read books as well as graffiti on the wall (both implement IReadable)
• Encapsulation because an apple doesn't expose an Atoms[] property