Is object-oriented programming structured programming?
Bernd Müller · ACM SIGPLAN Notices · 1993
Object-oriented programming is one of today's buzzwords .On the one hand it is a programmin g paradigm of its own right .On the other hand it is a set of software engineering tools to build mor e reliable and reusable systems .One other kind of programming style, which has alr eady shown its power on this field is structured programming .In this paper we look at the relationship between structured programming and object-oriente d programming .We give a definition of structured programming and check the object-oriented features encapsulation, inheritance and messages for compatibility .Two problems arise .The first addresse s interfaces and inheritance, the second polymorphism and dynamic binding .We do not end with an answer like yes or no, but try to give a basis for further discussions .This may help to classify object-oriented programming into a wide range of tools for compute r programming and computer science .It may also help to abandon the hypothesis that object-oriente d programming is the solution to all the problems .