Object-oriented vs traditional structured - Essay Example

Structured verses object oriented programs Structured verses object oriented programming Introduction A program relates to a set ofinstructions that shows how to solve a predefined problem or task. Programs have other names as task, modules or codes. There are different types of programs, for example, the system programs, application programs and user defined programs. The programs are developed in low-level and high-level programming languages. The low-level programming languages develop programs in binary numbers form, which are easily understandable to the computer systems while the high-level languages develop programs inform of alphanumeric codes.

It is indispensable to note that object oriented programming remains as the most high-level, flexible, and reusable program compared to structured programming. Object oriented programming (OPP), is much advanced than the structured programming languages since it incorporates three important principles of software development like encapsulation for data hiding which is not common in structured system. Structured programming is the application programming method created in a top- down coding style with functions oriented structures.

The structured programming employs the programming mechanisms of dividing program source codes into modules, which consist of control statements like loops, library or user defined functions. The development and implementation of structured programming happens sequentially.Object oriented programming promotes the communication of objects and functions in the main program and the classes in private or public manner. There are three characteristics of object-oriented programming which the structured programming does not have for example the encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism (Pecinovscy, 2013).

In contrast, structured programming takes the top-bottom approach in the development of its codes while OOP remains organized into classes and embedded with functions that control the data within the classes. Secondly, structured programming is based on data structures and subroutines while the object oriented has object that supports polymorphism or reusability accelerating system design hence the reduction cost in software development. Structured programming split tasks into modular forms improving the readability and the simplicity of its coding system.

While in the object oriented programs each object code structure include the data and the statements controlling the data flow. There is no reusability in the structured code systems while in coding system of the OPP codes there is reusability meaning a section of codes can find use by other related functions to perform a given task. Traditional structured coding is organized into hierarchy of processes while the object-oriented program decomposes into a network collaborating objects. Even though both the traditional structured and OOP programming bears some differences, they also share a band of similarities.

Both structured program and object-oriented programs accept data inform of data types such as integers, floats strings and structures to perform specified tasks. They are easy to develop and use sharing different types of functions the library functions and the user-defined functions created by the users. Both OOP and structured programming modules require basic knowledge and understanding of programming concepts for development and execution. For example, control flows like the loops, conditional statements, variables, arrays, and structures are important elements for both the two languages and require comprehensive knowledge (Bajaj & Wryzca, 2009).

Conclusion Traditionally, programmers would develop programs called structured programs designed to solve some great problems. However, the programmers would divide the programs into smaller units for manageability purposes. Object oriented programming is the solution behind the success of traditional methods of programming. Instead of breaking problems into smaller problems units, OOP divides problems into objects, which are reusable and can hide data by encapsulation. Object oriented programs encourages redesigning by incorporation one of its principles of polymorphism creating the reusability and cutting the cost of software building.

ReferencesBajaj, A., & Wrycza, S. (2009). Systems analysis and design for advanced modeling methods: Best practices. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.Pecinovsky, R. (2013). Oop - learn object oriented thinking and programming. S.l.: Bruckner Tomas Repin