(A Level) Programming paradigms and object-oriented programming

Learning objectives

Compare the low-level, imperative, object-oriented and declarative paradigms, and describe the kind of problem that each one suits

Define a class with private properties and public methods, including a constructor, and create objects as instances of that class

Explain encapsulation and information hiding, and describe why properties are kept private and reached only through get and set methods

Define a subclass that inherits from a superclass, add new methods and override inherited ones, and draw an inheritance diagram for a small hierarchy of classes

Explain polymorphism as the automatic selection at run time of the overridden method belonging to the actual object, and give an example that shows how it removes duplicated code

Write and interpret program code that creates objects, calls their methods and stores a collection of objects in an array or a list

Turn a description of a situation into facts and rules in a declarative language, and state the result of a goal, including one that uses a rule with variables