The Object-Oriented Approach: Are We Getting Something for Nothing?

Everybody is excited about the object-oriented approach (well, almost everybody). Almost everybody knows that this approach is better than what preceded it (even though not everybody knows why). Those who are not excited about the object-oriented approach do not really doubt its effectiveness. They doubt whether the organizational changes are worth the trouble: expense of training the developers and the users; efforts to produce new standards, guidelines, and documentation; project delays due to learning; and assimilation of new technology with all related mistakes and false starts.

The risks are significant, but so are the rewards (or so we think). The major boost for the object-oriented approach comes from the availability and broad acceptance of languages that support objects; C++ is without a doubt the most significant factor here.