Introduction to Object Oriented Programming

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) makes it easy to do exceptional things. A simple analogy could be drawn with a machine, perhaps a car. When you step on the accelerator, a whole bunch of things happens under the hood. We don't need to understand about combustion or fuel pumps because a smart engineer has provided an interface for us. In this case, a mechanical interface—the accelerator pedal.

Take the following line of Java code as an example; it will look a little intimidating:

locationManager.getLastKnownLocation(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER)

However, once you learn that this single line of code searches Space for the available satellites and then communicates with them in orbit around the Earth while retrieving your precise latitude and longitude on the planet, it is easy to begin to glimpse the power and depth of object-oriented programming. Even if that code does look a little bit long and scary, imagine talking to a satellite in some other way!

Java is a programming language that has been around a lot longer than Android. It is an object-oriented language. This means that it uses the concept of reusable programming objects. If this sounds like technical jargon, another analogy will help. Java enables us and others (such as the Android development team) to write Java code that can be structured based on real-world "things" and, here is one of the important things- it can be reused.