Comments on: OOP PHP What are the benefits? http://muffinresearch.co.uk/archives/2005/01/25/oop-php-what-are-the-benefits/ the personal blog of Stuart Colville covering modern web development techniques and best practices Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:02:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: John http://muffinresearch.co.uk/archives/2005/01/25/oop-php-what-are-the-benefits/#comment-3 John Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0000 http://dev.muffinresearch.co.uk/archives/2005/01/25/oop-php-what-are-the-benefits/#comment-3 I don't really think there's much of a debate to be had. Like the "how old a browser should you support" arguments, how heavily you value extensibility over performance depends almost entirely on what kind of application you are writing, who you expect to use it, and how often you anticipate changes. If you are making a very stable, high-traffic project, clearly you are going to want to lean towards speed and performance. But in my experience most PHP apps are intended for small audiences who's needs are either rapidly changing or poorly defined -- thus making on-the-fly changes more important. Whenever I work on an app, I ask myself how many people are going to be using it and how often. If one or both of those numbers are small, I always lean towards OOP-style coding, just because it is easier to maintain and my audience won't notice a fifty millisecond slowdown. I don’t really think there’s much of a debate to be had. Like the “how old a browser should you support” arguments, how heavily you value extensibility over performance depends almost entirely on what kind of application you are writing, who you expect to use it, and how often you anticipate changes. If you are making a very stable, high-traffic project, clearly you are going to want to lean towards speed and performance. But in my experience most PHP apps are intended for small audiences who’s needs are either rapidly changing or poorly defined — thus making on-the-fly changes more important.

Whenever I work on an app, I ask myself how many people are going to be using it and how often. If one or both of those numbers are small, I always lean towards OOP-style coding, just because it is easier to maintain and my audience won’t notice a fifty millisecond slowdown.

]]> By: Stuart Colville http://muffinresearch.co.uk/archives/2005/01/25/oop-php-what-are-the-benefits/#comment-4 Stuart Colville Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0000 http://dev.muffinresearch.co.uk/archives/2005/01/25/oop-php-what-are-the-benefits/#comment-4 The key point you make is a valid one in that, this whole thing means different things to different people. My own view on the whole thing certainly relates more to practical usage than any concerns about speed of execution. For me, repetitive tasks are best done with classes and now that I use classes I won't be going back. The key point you make is a valid one in that, this whole thing means different things to different people. My own view on the whole thing certainly relates more to practical usage than any concerns about speed of execution. For me, repetitive tasks are best done with classes and now that I use classes I won’t be going back.

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