Objects

In Objective-C, these operations are known as the object's methods; the data they affect are its instance variables. In essence, an object bundles a data structure (instance variables) and a group of procedures (methods) into a self-contained programming unit. For example, if you are writing a drawing program that allows a user to create images composed of lines, circles, rectangles, text, bit-mapped images, and so forth, you might create classes for many of the basic shapes that a user will be able to manipulate. A Rectangle object, for instance, might have instance variables that identify the position of the rectangle within the drawing along with its width and its height. Other instance variables could define the rectangle's color, whether or not it is to be filled, and a line pattern that should be used to display the rectangle. A Rectangle would have methods to set the rectangle's position, size, color, fill status, and line pattern, along with a method that causes the rectangle to display itself. Moreover, an object sees only the methods that were designed for it; it can't mistakenly perform methods intended for other types of objects.