Machine Tongues IX: Object-Oriented Programming
Henry Lieberman · Computer Music Journal · 1982
In a previous issue of Computer Music Journal, 4(4), Glenn Krasner outlined the basic tenets of objectoriented programming in Smalltalk (Krasner 1980). In this article, I will review some aspects of the object-oriented paradigm using another objectoriented language, Act 1, applied to some simple musical applications. The discussion will focus on areas where the needs of musical applications intersect with those of artificial intelligence (AI), in which object-oriented programming is becoming increasingly popular. Some of the issues we will explore are extensibility of programs, sharing knowledge between parts of programs, and parallel programming. In order to keep the discussion of the technical issues uncluttered, I have kept the musical examples extremely simple. The ramifications of the object-oriented approach for more complex musical applications should be clear.