Object-oriented programming for engineering software development

The representation of engineering systems in a manner suitable for computer processing is an important aspect of software development for computer aided engineering. The process of abstraction is a well-known technique for developing data representations. Objects are a mechanism for representing data using abstraction, and object-oriented languages are languages for writing programs to manipulate objects. The paper shows through examples the advantages of object-oriented programming for developing engineering software. Mathematical graphs are used as an abstraction for two problems: (1) sorting activities in a schedule and (2) ordering nodes and elements in a finite element mesh. Classes of objects are developed for generic graphs, activity procedence graphs, and graphs of elements meshes. Object-oriented program development leads to modular programs and a substantial reuse of code for the two problems.