There's a customization group defined, Oop, that's been in there since 1997, but at least in my build it is empty. I couldn't find anything refer to it. cus-edit.el: (defgroup oop nil "Support for object-oriented programming." :group 'programming) Also, I don't think the structure of these groups is very well though out: We have "Languages", then "Tools", which is helpfully labeled "Programming tools". What's a tool, and what's not? I think this means "general utilities: tools for programming in any language". But the structuring isn't good in the first place. Discounting the empty Oop group (which shouldn't be here anyways, since we lack a group for functional or imperative or whatever programming), there are just two entries in the "Programming" group. This doesn't justify an extra level in the hierarchy.