Comparison of Complexity for Traditional and Object-Oriented Programs

Abstract

This paper investigates differences in complexity of traditionally developed software programs versus object-oriented developed software programs. In order to gain insights for developing a framework by which different programming paradigms may be compared for complexity, students at two different academic institutions were surveyed and previous research was examined. This paper discovered that the programs’ relative complexity increase when object-oriented technologies are used to solve a given problem instead of traditional programming technologies. It will be of interest to faculty and administrators at educational institutes who want to have a greater understanding of complexity in different programming paradigms.

Keywords: Comparisons, Traditional, Procedural, Object-oriented

JEL Classification: I21