Dividing computer programs into "procedural" or "object-oriented" is a false dichotomy. Procedures are how we get things done. Without procedures, how can we do anything? Even object-oriented programs must use procedures.
As an examle of this false dichotomy, see Understanding Object Oriented Programming.
So, now I ask: How can I write a recipe -- say, for baking bread -- as an object-oriented recipe?
My point is, that we tell beginning programmers that writing a program is writing instructions for the computer to execute. Many programming primers compare a computer program to a recipe. If procedural programming really is fundamentally different from object-oriented progamming, and if object-oriented programming is preferred, shouldn't we have a different way to teach beginning programmers? Can we show them an object-oriented recipe?
Posted by Doug Sauder at December 7, 2003 10:29 PM