BEYOND OBJECTS: OBJECTS

Abstract

Object-orientation offers more than just objects, classes and inheritance as means to structure applications. It is an approach to application development in which software systems can be constructed by composing and refining pre-designed, plug-compatible software components. But for this approach to be successfully applied, programming languages must provide better support for component specification and software composition, the software development life-cycle must separate the issues of generic component design and reuse from that of constructing applications to meet specific requirements, and, more generally, the way we develop, manage, exchange and market software must adapt to better support large-scale reuse for software communities. In this paper we shall explore these themes and we will highlight a number of key research directions and open problems to be explored as steps towards improving the effectiveness of object technology.