Objects

An object is a self-contained entity within a software program that contains both code and data. Thus, instead of having data separately from the code to operate on that data, you can have an object and, in essence "tell it what to do". When you call the methods of on object, the object will perform some task, operating on its own member properties?.

Object concepts are the very basis of Object Oriented Programming (OOP).

An object consists of two elements:

• member properties - The data that define the object
• methods - The code that allows the object to perform actions

Common conventions and techniques used in programming with objects include:

• Getters and Setters - to provide for portability and reusability of objects
• Public and Private Methods - further separating the object's code from being tied-to the program's code

Objects in Lingo reside entirely in memory. They are generally created during the running of the application, and destroyed permanently when the application is closed. Of course, there are exceptions to this concept.

An excellent resource for object oriented programming in Lingo can be found at [[1]]