I was thinking a little more about this.

Does Java allow variables to be passed by reference? I haven't seen much variable passing yet, only sending objects to other objects. The book did mention that the name of the string object held the memory value of the location where the string itself was stored (ie the name is actually a pointer that references the contents of the string object).

In structured programming languages like c many of your operations are performed on the pointers to the variables and this has great implications regarding the scope of your variable - Loreta, this should be sparking some reminiscences for you.

Does the idea of scope change in object oriented programming -- or java specifically? When I was taking c++ I didn't notice much of a difference.

well it's only about 8:30 am and I am rambling. I have been wrestling with the differences between OOP and structured programming.

Ken w