Abstract: An object-oriented development system of the present invention includes a development system, which may include, among other features, a compiler, a linker, standard libraries, class libraries, and a debugger. Methods of the present invention include constructing C++ classes having response functions--C++ class methods which process specific system messages of interest. More particularly, a C++ class includes a registry object--an object which associates the message of interest with a particular response function. The registry object includes C++ template definition, whereby the object includes a "generic" function, that is, one which is not tied to any specific parameter type. In this manner, the message-response functions of the development system do not require compiler-specific extensions or unsafe casting operations.