OOP the Easy Way

by Graham Lee

OOP gained currency when Xerox PARC designed Smalltalk, a programming environment accessible to children who could learn about the world and about the computer simultaneously by modelling real-world problems on their computer. How has this simple design language for children become so complicated that pro devs give up?

https://leanpub.com/ooptheeasyway

72 pages, ebook

Reviews

[pluton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on the title, it's book about OOP, which has been around for a few decades, but it still quite confusing as a methodology for most programmers (including me) — the first part attempts to describe the current state of OOP. The root idea of the book is that the concept of objects is in fact simpler than what we're used to from mainstream languages, and they are independent systems (programs) that communicate by sending messages using a known public interface; they can be run in separate OS processes and even on different hosts. Basically, the popular now idea of microservices extended down to the level of pieces of programs.
Also, I like the observation that there is no need for a fixed inheritance/subclassing system in a programming language, instead it's better to provide a few necessary primitives for communication, so that you can build prototype-based, inheritance-based, multiple inheritance-based hierarchies to fit your problem, and even combine them in a single program. "Objects are poor man's closures and vice versa" indeed. This is how you can build an object system in a not-OOP language.
Overall, the book is an interesting look at what OOP "should be". I wish it had more examples and practical ideas, e.g. how this more dynamic message-based object could fit into a static type system.

[Jarosław Sadziński · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book. But only for developers with experience.