Does using class reduces performance?

[Anon]

Everytime i see a code snippet it's full of HTML <? --- ?> HTML <? --- ?> HTML <? --- ?>

I would rather use objects and classes for everything (session/authentication management, querys, rendering html tables, forms etc...). But it seems that people are "scripting" instead of "coding" and I wonder why's that?

Does php loose (a lot of) performance each time you include a 'my_class.inc' and each time you do '$my_thing = new thing()' ????

If so, how do I measure (predict) the performance of my application if I'm working at my home machine?

If 3 months from now I have 10000 page hits per hour on an application server, do I have to re-write everthing in the old "<TD><?=$data_cell?></td>" way?

Thanks a lot.

André

[chriss]

Sure it is going to be slower. Every time you make a function call, instantiate an object, create a variable, etc. it takes compute cycles. The question you have to ask is that will the speed increase that you get from using simpler embedded PHP code be worth the maintenance headache you just created?

With the power of the machines today I would not worry about the speed. I don't know if you have been looking lately, but RAM is pretty cheap.

Of course this is just my personal opinion...