What MIME is
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. An industry-standard code that defines how an e-mail message is sent in code and then decoded when received at its destination. It is actually a protocol for e-mail that enables the transmission of non-text data, such as graphics, audio, video, and other binary types of files. These files are encoded into text that would look like gobbledygook to us.
An e-mail program, such as Eudora, is MIME-compliant if it can send and receive files using the MIME standard. The MIME standard is universally used by Internet servers to identify the files that are sent to clients. Since the files are identified by the servers, users can accommodate new file formats by adding them to their browser's list of MIME-types and programs for handling each type. S/MIME, the secure version of the standard, utilizes an encryption system to protect e-mail, even when it is sent between different e-mail clients. S/MIME messages include the message itself and the encryption information (such as a digital certificate).
The meaning of Object-oriented programming (OOP)
A type of programming that combines data structures with functions to create reusable objects. It works something like this: Programmers can create modules that do not need to be changed when a new type of object is added; instead, one can simply create a new object that inherits many of its features from existing objects. This inheritance relationship between objects makes object-oriented programs easier to modify than procedural programming techniques.
The most popular object-oriented programming languages are Java and C++. There is also UML (Unified Modeling Language) which is the industry-standard language for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of software systems. It simplifies the complex process of software design, making a "blueprint" for construction.
"Object-oriented" can also be used to describe a system that primarily deals with different types of objects, where the actions you take depend on what type of object you are manipulating. For example, an object-oriented graphics program might enable you to draw many types of objects, such as circles, rectangles, and triangles. Applying the same action to each of these objects, however, would produce different results. If the action is "Make 3-D," for instance, the result would be a sphere, a box, and a pyramid, respectively.
Object-oriented graphics are also called vector graphics.
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