How to explain an object?

Question

It\'s been years since I thought of this, but I am training some real juniors soon and need to explain what an object is to someone who doesn\'t know what it is.

B

Answer 1

IMHO we must first get them interested in OOP before bombarding them with all the concepts in OOP. To make them get attracted towards OOP, explaining all the concepts in OOP or showing examples of cats and dogs will not work. You need to show them the advantages by comparing a problem solved the OOP and the non OOP way. Make sure you solve the problem first the non OOP way, highlight the disadvantages, use one of the concepts of OOP to solve it. It might probably employ only one concept of OOP, but if you are able to make them feel the advantage it holds over the other method, they would themselves be eager to explore more of OOP. You just need to point them in the right direction after that. Once they are familiar with the concepts, point them towards design pattern books like "Head first design patterns".