Book excerpt: Programming in an Object-Oriented Environment provides an in-depth look at the concepts behind the technology of object-oriented programming. This book explains why object-oriented programming has the potential to vastly improve the productivity of programmers and how to apply this technology in a practical environment. Many programming examples are included, focusing on how different programming languages support the core of object-oriented concepts. C++ is used as the main sample language throughout this text. This monograph consists of two major parts. Part I provides an introduction to object-oriented concepts, their rationale and their implementation in programming languages. The object-oriented approach to programming in an object-oriented environment is discussed in Part II. This publication is intended for software professionals who are interested in learning the fundamental concepts of object-oriented programming and how to apply these concepts in a practical computer environment.