Object-oriented programming language: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

An object-oriented programming language is one that allows or encourages, to some degree, object-oriented programming 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 objects (classes, methods, 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

1. Ada 95
2. C++
3. C#
4. Common Lisp
5. CorbaScript
6. COOL (Object Oriented COBOL)
7. D
8. Delphi
9. ECMAScript (JavaScript)
10. Eiffel
11. Gambas
12. IDLscript
13. incr Tcl
14. J
15. Java
16. JavaScript
17. Lexico
18. Lingo
19. Modula-2
20. NewtonScript
21. Oberon and Oberon-2
22. Objective-C
23. Perl 5
24. PHP
25. PowerBuilder
26. Python
27. Ruby
28. Sather
29. Scala
30. Self
31. Simula
32. Smalltalk
33. STOOOP
34. Superx++
35. VBScript
36. Visual Basic / VB.NET
37. XOTcl