When I started this course object-oriented programming (OOP) was a foreign concept to me; not in the sense that I had no idea how to use it, but in the sense that I really didn't even know what it was. Of course, little did I know that I had been using and manipulating it in Python this entire time! This first SLOG entry I feel is an important one now, because it made me really learn about the subject at hand, OOP. Sure, I may have off-handedly referred to parts of my code as objects, but I had no real sense of what it was. So, for others out there like me, here is my explanation in brief.
So, an intro to OOP. Python is a language based entirely on OOP. The 'objects' in question are things such as the instances of a class, a function, or a value. Objects have two parts, their state and behavior. Say for instance (heh) that we have a Class Door. A door can open and close. The state of the door would be either that it is open or closed at a point in time. The behavior would be that you can either open door or close door. OOP is to build programs around objects of these types.
I can now more clearly see the extent of use of OOP, and I hope that this information will help me to improve in my computer science/programming abilities. Though I may have gone along just fine without actually know what OOP was, now that this SLOG has enticed me to research further, I think I will be more ready for what this course and future computer science courses bring.
