COMO: An approach to Object Oriented Analysis and Design for High Energy Physics applications of algorithmic nature

The emergence of the Object Oriented technology is having major consequences on the evolution of the software for High Energy Physics. Given the lack of maturity of the commercial products currently available, it is too early to make a statement on which OO languages and methodologies will survive up to the start of the Large Hadron Collider. The opinion of the author is that many traditional design features successfully tested during the last two decades are rather independent from any specific language characteristics. They still appear as valuable and could be seamlessly transposed into the Object world. They constitute the skeleton of the COMO approach presented in this note.