Recently I had the opportunity to read the Intel manual introducing the iAPX 432 architecture. The manual is an amalgam of an informal overview of the hardware, a quick tutorial review of computer architectures in general, an introduction to the advanced concepts of the 432 in particular, and marketing hype proclaiming the advantages of the 432 over its competition. The 432's architecture has many interesting, unusual characteristics, and Intel is wise to introduce them in a form which is quickly assimilable. What most caught my interest is the claim that the 432 supports the "object oriented design methodology."
What is object oriented programming? My guess is that object oriented programming will be in the 1980's what structured programming was in the 1970's. Everyone will be in favor of it. Every manufacturer will promote his products as supporting it. Every manager will pay lip service to it. Every programmer will practice it (differently). And no one will know just what it is. Surely there's a better way. I hope this paper will clarify object oriented programming by characterizing its more important aspects. These characterizations, while not a definition per se, should at least provide a better understanding, and ideally a commonly held one. Thus I hope we can avoid the deplorable and confusing situation just described.