Not sure about "utility"/"tool", but an object is distinguished from a function by having state. Call an object's method, and the method's scope is populated by the object's data members, which of course, differ from object to object.
By contrast a function either has no state (pure function), or its state is global (same for every function invocation). Cheers On Tue, Jul 17, 2018 at 10:06:57PM -0400, Nick Thompson wrote: > Dave, and anybody else who wants to play. > > > > I have always been puzzled by the question of how one distinguishes an > object in object programming from a utility in DOS or a tool in Matlab. Or > any mathematical function, for that matter. You give it what it needs, and > it gives you what it's supposed to, and you don't give a damn how it works. > > > > Please don't yell at me. > > > > Nick > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Senior Research Fellow hpco...@hpcoders.com.au Economics, Kingston University http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove