Object Oriented Programming vs. Procedural Programming

Object Oriented Programming vs. Procedural Programming

Abstract

Object Oriented Programming has been one of the most widely used programming languages. However, since its advent, there have been made a number of claims regarding the language. The majorities of these claims are irrational and have no significant evidences and proves to back them. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to discuss the validity of these claims by comparing the language with other useful ones. The paper will compare the functionality, readability and maintainability of Procedural Programming and Object Oriented Programming and compare them to find the lacking areas of the two programming languages. The paper will also include supporting examples and evidences on why OOP can still be used for a number of applications. These supporting evidences can help the developers to produce software more maintainable then using object oriented language as opposed to the procedural language.

Introduction

The software engineering discipline and field is always on the lookout for the creation and introduction of more updated and sophisticated programming languages. These languages have served to facilitate a number of tasks and procedures in various other fields. In fact, these programming languages can be given the credit of running the information and communication systems in a number of Organizations of different natures. Of the several, Object Oriented Programming (OOP) language has been the most used as compared to other programming languages including Procedure Based Languages. It has been 1960's since the OOP language has benefited IT systems in a number of applications. However, it has not been until the last 15 years or so that the OOP language was used by developers and business as the only means of developing their communication and information systems. However, until recently various developers have started to doubt the effectiveness of OOP over the procedure based language.

Thesis Statement

There are several disadvantages and advantages that the OOP enjoys over the procedure based language. The basic difference between both the languages is the fact that procedure based programming results in higher runtime efficiency (faster programs) as opposed to the Object Orient Programming that results in higher programming efficiency (faster programming development). The Procedure Based Programming languages may now also serve as a number of applications. However, sophisticated and updated OOP languages such as Java make sure that the OOP languages are further developed and evolved.

Discussion

Before the discussion is proceeded regarding which of the two languages is more useful or efficient, it is first important that the definitions of both the terms are discussed.

What is Object Oriented Programming

Object-oriented programming can be defined as a programming paradigm which uses and utilizes abstraction that are in the form of objects and classes in order to create models on the basis of the real world environment. The applications of the object-oriented programming use a combination of objects that communicate thereby passing messages in order to request the services. These objects are very capable of receiving messages, passing messages, and also processing ...