Ten Things I Hate About Object-Oriented Programming

by Oscar Nierstrasz

Boy, I some days I really hate object-oriented programming. Apparently I’m not the only one. In the immortal words of Edsger Dijkstra: “Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea which could only have originated in California.”

Well, I’m not normally one to complain, but I think it is time to step back and take a serious look at what is wrong with OOP. In this spirit, I have prepared a modest list of Ten Things I Hate About Object-Oriented Programming.

Scaling & Availability Anti-patterns

Most of you are familiar with patterns in software development. If you are not a great reference is Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture by Martin Fowler or Code Complete by Steve McConnell. The concept of a pattern is a reusable design that solves a particular problem. No sense in having every software engineer reinvent the wheel. There is also the concept of an anti-pattern, which as the name implies, is a design or behavior that appears to be useful but results in less than optimal results and thus something that you do not want engineers to follow. We’ve decided to put a spin on the anti-pattern concept by coming up with a list of anti-patterns for scaling and availability. These are practices or actions that will lead to pitfalls for your application or ultimately your business.