The Object-Oriented Paradigm

    Object-oriented analysis, design, and programming are proven powerful means to master the complexity inherent in the development process of large, distributed applications.
  The ingredients and benefits of object orientation are well described by Booch in [Boo94, S. 2,]: the object-oriented conceptual framework, called the object model, is based on the combination of the principles of abstraction, encapsulation, modularity, and hierarchy, often supplemented by the principles of typing, concurrency, and persistence.
According to Booch, the usage of the object model for the design process of an application offers several advantages over traditional techniques:

• The application of the object model helps substantially to develop complex programs.
• Only object-oriented analysis and design permit to fully exploit the expressive power of modern object-oriented programming languages.
• The object model facilitates the reuse of both code and designs.
• Systems designed according to object-oriented principles can evolve over time and can be adapted easily to accommodate future demands, without necessitating the abandon or complete restructuring of the original design.
• Object orientation reduces the risks of software development.
• The object model resembles human cognition more closely than traditional design paradigms.

The object-oriented paradigm---especially the concepts of object-oriented decomposition, inheritance, specialisation, and polymorphism---are particularly well suited for multimedia application programming because:

• object-oriented decomposition leads to meaningful abstractions that allow to construct and handle composed media objects conveniently,
• polymorphism and inheritance hide specific details of particular hardware devices from the rest of the program,
• specialisation offers the flexibility necessary for adding support for new media types and hardware devices easily.