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I mostly write small scripts in python, about 50 - 250 lines of code. I usually don't use any objects, just straightforward procedural programming.
I know OOP basics and I have used object in other programming languages before, but for small scripts I don't see how objects would improve them. But maybe that is just my limited experience with OOP.
Am I missing something by not trying harder to use objects, or does OOP just not make a lot of sense for small scripts?
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These include: design patterns, abstraction, encapsulation, modularity, polymorphism, and inheritance. When not to use OOP: Putting square pegs in round holes: Don't wrap everything in classes when they don't need to be. Sometimes there is no need and the extra overhead just makes your code slower and more complex.
OOP language allows to break the program into the bit-sized problems that can be solved easily (one object at a time). The new technology promises greater programmer productivity, better quality of software and lesser maintenance cost. OOP systems can be easily upgraded from small to large systems.
Security: Object-oriented programming is more secure than procedural programming, because of the level of abstraction or we can say data hiding property. It limits the access of data to the member functions of the same class. While there is no such data hiding in the procedural programming paradigm.
Object-oriented programming has fulfilled many of its promises. Software systems today are longer-lived and more amenable to change and extension than ever. Nevertheless we observe that object orientation is slowly dying, with the introduction of ever more complex and heterogeneous systems.
I use whatever paradigm best suits the issue at hand -- be it procedural, OOP, functional, ... program size is not a criterion, though (by a little margin) a larger program may be more likely to take advantage of OOP's strengths -- multiple instances of a class, subclassing and overriding, special method overloads, OOP design patterns, etc. Any of these opportunities can perfectly well occur in a small script, there's just a somewhat higher probability that it will occur in a larger one.
In addition, I detest the global statement, so if the natural procedural approach would require it, I will almost invariably switch to OOP instead -- even if the only advantage is the ability to use a qualified name instead of the barename which would require global.
There's definitely no need to "try harder" in general -- just ask yourself "is there an opportunity here to use (a) multiple instances (etc etc)" and it will soon become second nature, i.e., you'll spot the opportunities without needing to consciously remind yourself every time to look for them, and your programming will improve as a result.
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