Is SLX object-oriented?
SLX is object based, but not object-oriented. SLX differs from object oriented systems in two ways. First, it uses composition, rather than inheritance, to create new objects out of old ones. In SLX, one builds larger objects as aggregations of smaller ones; i.e., the approach is inherently bottom-up. With inheritance, one builds general objects first, and specific variations of these objects second; i.e., the approach is inherently top-down. Second, SLX does not include procedural polymorphism, which is another characteristic of the object-based approach. Some of the functionality of procedural polymorphism is provided by the power of SLX’s macro and statement definition facility. One can, for example, develop statements which accommodate a wide variety of operand types and combinations, mapping each into appropriate lower-level constructs. Back to top.
