[Tutor] RE: when to use OOP

Danny Yoo dyoo@hkn.eecs.berkeley.edu
Sat, 10 Aug 2002 14:56:23 -0700 (PDT)


> So my advice is not to look for a reason to use OOP but rather to start
> every project with the assumption that OOP is in order and only deviate
> from that decision when clear circumstances dictate. I've never seen a
> project that was harder to extend or maintain because it was built using
> OOP strategies and techniques.

I still feel that unmaintainable code can be written using the most
sophisticated of techniques.  *grin*


But seriously, there are ways of writing really bad OOP programs if we
apply OOP techniques gratuitously.  Bruce Tate has written a book called
"Bitter Java" that talks about hideously bad OOP designs and how to
improve them:

    http://www.manning.com/tate/

His focus is on "Antipatterns" --- OOP designs that can cause long-term
maintainability problems.  It's quite good, and even if its implementation
language is Java, there's quite a lot that can apply well to Python
programming.


Best of wishes to you!