Object-oriented programming language

An object-oriented programming language is one that allows or encourages, to some degree, object-oriented programming methods. See object-oriented programming for details about those methods.

Though Simula (1967), a language created for making simulation programs, was probably the first language to have the primary features of an object-oriented language, Smalltalk is arguably the canonical example, and the one with which much of the theory of object-oriented programming was developed.

These languages include "pure" object-oriented languages such as Smalltalk, Eiffel and Ruby, which were designed specifically to facilitate - even enforce - object-oriented methods; languages such as Java and Python, which are primarily designed for object-oriented programming but have some procedural elements; and languages such as C++ and Perl, which are historically procedural languages that have been extended with some object-oriented features. Oberon (and its successor Oberon-2) include most of the functionality of objectss (classeses, methodss, inheritance, and reusability) but in a distinctly original, and elegant, form.

Some languages include abstract data type support, but not all of the features of object orientation (eg, Modula-2 which provided excellent encapsulation and information hiding). These are sometimes called object-based languages.

Inheritance and polymorphism are usually used to reduce code bloat, but abstraction and encapsulation are used to increase code clarity, quite independent of the other two.

Languages with object-oriented features

Ada 95
C++
C#
Common Lisp
CorbaScript
COOL (Object Oriented COBOL)
D
Delphi
ECMAScript (JavaScript)
Eiffel
Gambas
IDLscript
incr Tcl
J
Java
JavaScript
Lexico
Lingo
Modula
NewtonScript
Oberon and Oberon-2
Objective C
Perl 5
PHP
PowerBuilder
Python
Ruby
Sather
Self
Simula
Smalltalk
STOOOP
Superx++
VBScript
Visual Basic / VB.NET
XOTcl