A few questions I like to ask myself when deciding on the split between procedural and OO

• how many classes am I likely to write - if it is < 3 perhaps procedural is better
• are there obvious inheritance relationships - '... and this report is just like that one, except that it doesn't have a totals section' - if there are, OO seems a stronger approach
• what are the odds of the original code needing several changes/additions in future - would small objects help make these changes easier to introduce
• would an object acting out a pattern of behaviour make the code easier to use/develop - e.g. I like to model processing record-based files with an iterator like pattern

  while (defined (my $record = $file_object->next()) { # next creates a 
  +record  object from data in the file
    $records->process();
  }
  [download]

• do I need flexibility in applying my objects ? Will this be easier/clearer in OO or procedural ? e.g.

  # OO
  $object->fold()->spindle()->mutilate();
  #procedural
  my $rc = mutilate(spindle(fold($data)));
  [download]

• if you have the knowledge - are patterns (ala GoF) going to help - these well-known solutions generally seem better in OO contexts, but that is not always so
• how many methods will these classes have - perhaps lots of single function objects would be better as a library of functions - unless these classes are overriding specific portions of a parent class (specialising their interface)

there are no hard-and-fast rules - except that the more experience and knowledge you have, the better your decisions will be. So, in the beginning, you can expect to make bad decisions - but as long as you view them as learning examples, then making them can be seen as encouraging.

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