I know hat classes and objects are. But I can’t figure out a good definition, that is simple (for programming beginners) and doesn’t have a cycle.
Here is a definition that is simple, but has a ciclye:
Class: A class is a blueprint for objects.
Object: An object is an instanciated class.
Can you give a simple definition for programming beginners of class and object, that is not cyclic?
(Background of this question: I’m currently giving a tutorial and I wanted my students to give me defitionions of very basic terms. As I prepared my questions and answers, I noticed that it is quite difficult for me to define these two terms in a good way, although I can characterize differences in some programming languages without problems)
I’m not sure you really can define one without the other, but I’m not sure they’re as cyclical as you think.
Perhaps the other way around:
A class is a collection of attributes and behaviours that will describe something – insert example here.
An object is a particular instance of that something.
I don’t think you can really define classes without reference to objects. However, you could do it the other way around:
An object is something that has both attributes (values that describe it), and methods (or operations – things that can be done to it).
A class is a way to abstract the description of an object, to say “all objects of this type have these important attributes and operations”.
Don’t know whether that helps or not…