An object in object-oriented language is essentially a record that contains procedures specialized to handle that record; and object types are an elaboration of record types. Indeed, in most object-oriented languages, records are just special cases of objects, and are known as plain old data structures (PODSs), to contrast with objects that use OO features.

For instance, those who prefer classical inheritance may enjoy the addition of the class keyword, while others may reject it as conflicting with the idea of a prototypical inheritance model.