Tutorial review. Object oriented programming on personal computers

Abstract

A historical introduction to the development of laboratory computing and object oriented programming (OOP) is given, with an emphasis on the scientific user. General features of OOP such as objects, classes, hierarchies, inheritance, encapsulation, messages and events, hiding, revealing and enabling objects and dynamic creation of objects are described, illustrated by screen layout and control. Two major programming environments, namely Toolbook and Visual BASIC are described. The importance of attaching conventional, numerical, code to objects is discussed, and the particular needs of numerically and graphically intensive laboratory scientific computing are emphasized. An example of the potential application to analytical chemistry, namely in display of diode-array HPLC data, is illustrated. Recommendations include balancing OOP with numerical programming.