KAPSEL-programming within boundaries

KAPSEL is a new object-oriented programming language to encourage the building of reusable software components. The components, i.e. classes, establish clear boundaries between their implementation detail and their outside-visible specification. The underlying software concept employed is that of encapsulation: the close integration and protection of information and its functionality. The paper explores the basic idea of encapsulation in object-oriented methodology: as it applies to objects, classes and class hierarchies, and introduces the programming language-KAPSEL-which facilitates the specification of reusable object-oriented software components