Object-oriented programs tend to be an order of magnitude or more complex than their equivalent functional programs. Here are ten ways in which object-oriented programs are more complex:
- Mutable State: Object-oriented code often relies on mutable state, which can introduce complexity as objects change their internal state over time. Managing state transitions and ensuring consistency can be challenging, especially in large codebases.
- Inheritance Hierarchy: Inheritance hierarchies can become complex and difficult to manage as the number of classes and their relationships increase. Deep inheritance trees can lead to tight coupling and make code harder to understand and maintain.
- Coupling and Dependency Management: Object-oriented code tends to have higher coupling between objects, making it more challenging to manage dependencies. This can result in cascading changes and difficulties in modifying or replacing objects without affecting other parts of the system.
- Side Effects: Object-oriented code often involves methods that produce side effects, modifying state outside of the local context. This can lead to unexpected behavior and make code harder to reason about.
- Decentralization of Control: Since each object is in theory responsible for as much of its part of the world as possible, emergent system behavior tends to become distributed across multiple classes. This leads to anti-patterns that OO programmers call ‘Shotgun Surgery’ where a single coherent change to system behavior requires changes across a large and unpredictable number of classes and methods.
- Object Lifecycle: Objects have their own lifecycle, including creation, initialization, and destruction. Managing object lifecycles, especially in complex systems, can be challenging and error-prone. Lifecycle concerns are omitted entirely when you focus on transforming data rather than simulants whose state indirectly represent data.
- Object Identity and Identity-based Operations: Object identity introduces additional complexity, especially when comparing or manipulating objects based on their identity rather than their value. This can lead to unexpected behavior and bugs.
- Polymorphism and Dynamic Dispatch: While polymorphism is a powerful feature of OOP, it can introduce complexity when dealing with dynamic dispatch and resolving method calls at runtime. It can be harder to track and understand the flow of execution.
- Inversion of Control and Frameworks: Object-oriented code often relies on frameworks and dependencies, which can add complexity. Understanding and managing the control flow within a framework can be challenging, especially for newcomers to the codebase.
- Testing and Mocking: Unit testing object-oriented code can be more complex due to the need for setting up and managing object states, dealing with dependencies, and mocking objects. This can make testing more cumbersome and increase the potential for test failures.
Vsyncronicity 