However I still would like to understand why the answers changed. And more importantly, what remained invariant between the art of programming then and now.

I'd hazard a guess that what changed was access to the data.

In non-OO code, since you've got direct access to the data its easier to roll multiple actions into a single sub. With OO code, though, the driving sub can't do that, so it calls into methods on the object to do it, and generally when people write the methods they make them single-purpose so they're reusable.

What you get is essentially another level of indirection--rather than a sub that looks like:

  code to do A;
  code to do B;
  code to do C;
[download]

you end up with:

  object.method_to_do_A;
  object.method_to_do_B;
  object.method_to_do_C;
[download]

since people seem to be more inclined to make methods do less stuff than they are to make functions do less stuff.

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.