Structured vs. Object-Oriented Programming: Efficiency & Learning

This essay delves into a comparison between structured programming and object-oriented programming (OOP), addressing the question of efficiency and suitability for learning. It argues that while structured programming is beneficial for beginners due to its step-by-step approach, OOP is more advantageous for developing complex systems with broader functionalities. OOP facilitates modularity, code reusability, and data privacy through concepts like data hiding. The essay also discusses the 'building block' concept in OOP, highlighting advantages such as reliability, agility, reusability, and standardization. While acknowledging that OOP might not perfectly mimic human thought processes, the essay emphasizes its practical benefits for real-world software development. The essay references works by Castagna (2012) and Siddik, Gias and Khaled (2014) to support its claims.

Answer 1
In structured oriented programming, it is all about the utilization of simple step-by-
step programming concepts in order to solve simple to complex problems. With regards to
the scope of learning purposes and using programming techniques to solve simpler or smaller
problems it is always recommendable to proceed with procedural or the structured program
languages. However, in real-life scenarios, when there is a need to develop a system with a
broader scope of features and functionalities, the object oriented methodology of program is
preferred. It helps to identify sets of common sets of data and then allow the storage and
analysis of dynamic data by grouping them into sets of classes and objects having similar
characteristics and behaviours. OOP allows the breaking down of a larger program into
smaller modules with different entities that may be tested as independent pillars of the
system.
In addition to the above, OOP allows more to the technique of code re-usability than
compared to the structured programming paradigm. Finally, data privacy is one of the major
reasons that put OOP one step ahead of its counterpart. OOP’s data hiding concepts help in
managing data accessibility constraints between different entities of separate classes
(Castagna, 2012).
Answer 2
In order to teach students the basics of computer programming it is always
recommended to start with the structured programming languages. We too learnt the same in
our early days. Structured languages like BASIC and C helped us to practise through the
details of the logics that are needed to understand and solve basic programming problems.
OOP came later into the picture and helped us identify and solve programming problems that

resemble real-life scenarios. The procedural fashion of programming is a real boon to the
novice programmers (Siddik, Gias and Khaled, 2014).
References
Castagna, G., 2012. Object-Oriented Programming A Unified Foundation. Springer Science
& Business Media.
Siddik, S., Gias, A.U. and Khaled, S.M., 2014, March. Optimizing software design migration
from structured programming to object oriented paradigm. In Computer and Information
Technology (ICCIT), 2013 16th International Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.