Here are some great links (for human beings and sensitive creative types) about Object Oriented design for multimedia. Most of these have some relation to Director and Lingo, but I have tried to select articles which do not go exhaustively into technical details. I'm also giving a quick resumé of each link, and in some cases a quote from the article
The mother of all object-oriented links pages is the Cetus links page
http://www.parallax.co.uk/cetus/software.html
...but beware, it does not cover multimedia in any depth, even less Lingo, and you may find yourself wading through over-complicated technical information.
Great Director resources can be found at
http://www.director-online.com
and
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/director/
but the relevant "meat" for our purposes can be found in the following places...
Thinking in an OOP way by Alan Levine
Responding to a question from a non technical designer about OOP, Alan demystifies many of the buzzwords and concepts and gives some pointers to progressing with OO in Director.
"Pretty soon, you start to realize that that approach is like having a very organized drawer in an otherwise messy office."
http://www.director-online.com/howTo/handy_articles/handy22.html
The Object Oriented Paradigm Shift by Paul Hemmer
This article is a banale short story about a company and its employees. All the working relationships are described as a thinly disguised object oriented structures. It also addresses some of the other very good reasons why OO is smart. Finally the true didactic purpose of the story is revealed.
"So what if it 'works' - it only works for the 'current state' of the system and if any changes are needed, say goodbye to your sanity trying to upgrade it."
http://www.director-online.com/howTo/UD_articles/OOP.html
Designing for Reuse with Inheritance in Lingo by Paul Hemmer
A discussion of techniques for making use of the advantages that OO offers, concentrating on inheritance. Includes some practical Lingo examples.
"The idea here is to break free from the mindset which requires programs to be controlled from a central control mechanism."
http://www.director-online.com/howTo/UD_articles/UD19.html
Peter Small is one of the more enigmatic figures in the multimedia world. His approach is never standard or conventional, always revolutionary, bizarre and infuriating.
His 'avatar' project is rapidly evolving into a lucrative cult, with large consultancy fees being paid by believers to 'the master'. You can meet some interesting people among his retinue, but you should probably read Rhinehart's "The Diceman" before you get too heavily involved. You have been warned...
Peter Small's OO view of Lingo
"OO is not a language: it is a mind set; a conceptual approach."
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/director/tips/oops/oo-psmall.html
"'What are you going to do with these objects?' asked the pregnant lady, who now had a very amused expression on her face.
'I'm going to use them like Lego parts to build a new movie' I told her."
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/director/tips/oops/peter-small-party.html
Lingo Sorcery Continuation by Peter Small
Peter's book "Lingo Sorcery" is still one of the most interesting Lingo books on the market, and has recently been updated to include some information about Director 6's behaviors. Unfortunately his publisher forced him to exclude some of the more weird and wonderful material he wanted it to contain, so he put the 'unacceptable' material on the web where anyone can read it.
Much of this weird stuff is decidedly non technical, even philosophical, and has some great cheap-looking but informative diagrams. You can get it all for free at
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/director/misc/sorcery/wio0896c/sorcery/index.htm
In particular "Objects in Nature";
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/director/misc/sorcery/wio0896c/sorcery/discobj.htm
and "Object Oriented Thinking";
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/director/misc/sorcery/wio0896c/sorcery/oot.htm
A set of excellent (technical) resources, including links to some of the above.
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/director/tips-oops.html
There's a lot to digest, and much of it will only make real sense in the context of practical experience. I don't think it's so important for people to grasp these ideas immediately, rather to have a kind of massage where the concept is introduced from various angles, and perhaps a look at some appropriate finished examples (the popular game "Lemmings" is an excellent and obvious realisation of OO).
Later when real life authoring questions come up, the skeleton of theory will flesh out quickly, often suddenly, after a more or less brief period of confusion. This "born again as an object" phenomenon is an almost universal experience, so I can say this quite confidently. A certain amount of faith is therefore required to get through the darkest immediately-pre-OO stage.
Brennan