Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-103). / This study attempts to bring insight into the claims and counter-claims made about Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). A rich understanding of OOP enables us to maximize OOP's potential and uncover its limitations in practice. OOP rose from relative obscurity in the 1960s to the mainstream of software development. While adoption of OOP continues to grow steadily fervent criticism mounts against OOP from certain quarters. Detractors believe that OOP's early promise has not been fulfilled and resentment deepens against its all-encompassing embrace. Negative, self-serving rants needs to be separated from genuine causes for concern about software development. Equally, the software development community must guard against the blind adoption of technology in an industry driven by excessive market hype and vested interests. Given the decidedly human nature of the task of programming and the varying interpretations and perceptions that exist about programming styles, it is unlikely that scientific methods can conclusively prove the truth of arguments made for or against OOP. Therefore this interpretive study uses hermeneutics to understand and explain the claims and counterclaims made in the OOP discourse in order to forge a deeper understanding of OOP. The 'meanings' of OOP in the online discussions taking place in three developer communities encounters the literature on OOP through hermeneutic principles of understanding. Three different interpretations of OOP emerge from this encounter. Against these newly appropriated insights of the OOP phenomenon the prevailing OOP discourse is critically assessed through the hermeneutic lens. This study concludes that the current quest for atemporal categories and casual explanations of OOP is futile; we can only deeply understand OOP if we are willing to accommodate multiple interpretations of OOP in a hermeneutic understanding of the phenomenon of OOP.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/8962 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Naidoo, Len |
| Contributors | Scott, Elsje |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Commerce, Department of Information Systems |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MCom |
| Format | application/pdf |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds