Object-Oriented Programming — The Trillion Dollar Disaster

The ultimate goal of every software developer should be to write reliable code. Nothing else matters if the code is buggy and unreliable. And what is the best way to write code that is reliable? Simplicity. Simplicity is the opposite of complexity. Therefore our first and foremost responsibility as software developers should be to reduce code complexity.

I’m not criticizing Alan Kay’s OOP — he is a genius. I wish OOP was implemented the way he designed it. I’m criticizing the modern Java/C# approach to OOP.

Many dislike speed limits on the roads, but they’re essential to help prevent people from crashing to death. Similarly, a good programming framework should provide mechanisms that prevent us from doing stupid things.

Yes, Functional Programming has a strong mathematical foundation and takes its roots in lambda calculus. However, most of its ideas emerged as a response to the weaknesses in the more mainstream programming languages. Functions are the core abstraction of Functional Programming. When used properly, functions provide a level of code modularity and reusability never seen in OOP. It even features design patterns that address the issues of nullability and provides a superior way of error handling.

I think that it is not right that OOP is considered the de-facto standard for code organization by many people, including those in very senior technical positions. It is also unacceptable that many mainstream languages don’t offer any other alternatives to code organization other than OOP.