There Is No Spoon

Written on January 16th, 2010 by Shawn Sparks

Object-Oriented Programming is all about conceptualizing real-world objects in our code. However, I find it helpful to keep in mind that the objects we create are simply abstractions. It is simply a collection of instance variables of various data types and functions. Functions themselves are simply a data type themselves whether or not it is in explicit in your language of choice. This means that an object is nothing more than a hash.The result is, with the proper language, a programmer can make objects and classes in his own manner. It is simply a matter of mapping hash keys to their appropriate instance variables and functions.

If you want to take it further, eventually, each composite data type can be broken down into a scalar value. Then a scalar type really is just a series of bits. Your kitchen spoon is nothing more than ones and zeros in the mind of a programmer.

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