Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Getting Started:
Object-oriented Programming

Object-oriented Programming and the Progress 4GL

Object-oriented programming is a popular programming model within the software development industry. There are standard concepts that all object-oriented programming languages support, such as abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, and strong typing. In releases prior to OpenEdge® 10.1A, the Progress® 4GL provides limited support for these concepts in the language using persistent procedures. The current release of OpenEdge provides language extensions to more completely support these standard object-oriented programming concepts in a way that is commonly available in other object-oriented languages, such as Java.

These object-oriented extensions complement the basic power of the 4GL, and its procedural programming model, with an alternative programming model that can seamlessly coexist with applications written using the procedural programming model. Thus, the object-oriented extensions continue to support the core features of the 4GL—business orientation, high productivity, and ease of use. These core features represent the true power of the Progress 4GL that differentiate it from other development languages.

The following sections provide an overview of this support:

Support for classes in the Progress 4GL
Overview of object-oriented programming
Overview of class-based 4GL
Programming conventions for classes