OO and PHP

Anon

Hi, Can you tell me what's the point to use OO (object oriented) langauge in PHP?
How does it help in software development? I've never used OO so far and don't see a point to start using it? Thanks!

toma42

It simplifies stuff and encapsulates related functionality.

Database abstraction layers may be the most common use of classes in php.

Check out phplib or any of the others for examples. You will need to actually have an understanding of them in general before you'll understand why they use classes, I believe.

Anon

It's basically a whole approach to programming that differs drastically from the rest. I like to think of it as environment simulation. This may not seem to make much sense, but whe you begin to understand it, you kinda' say "Ooohh, I see".

Anyways, it helps in development where you are using allready written and tested classes. It also helps with complexity.

As for wether or not you should need to use it, that depends on your taste. I'd say it's great for mid to large projects and those requiring multiple db connections or other
strange things.

But you really need to just check it out for
yourself.

Later on,
Terrence

Anon

OOP - is a great thing for any language. To help you understand it - I'll give a breif example.

Object has
1. attributes/properties - things that describe it
2. methods/functions - things that the object can do

So let's say human being object
1. attributes - legs, arms, height, color of eyes, etc.
2. methods/functions - run, eat, program, sleep, write in php forum :0)

So, then same approach is taken to software development you can have an object

Database
1. attributes - host, password, username, etc.
2. methods/functions - connect, delete, update, whatever....

You can have different databases, different users, but... with OOP you can have only one class and it'll take care of them all...

You will understand OOP to a good degree only after you'll write your own working class, once you'll get that working example - you'll probably never abandon OOP.

Anon

Thanks for your answers! Dmitriy - great explaination.
Can you recommend any article/site to get started with OOP?

Thanks again

Anon

Well...

This is the list of sites that have articles on OOP

www.phpbuilder.com
www.linuxguruz.org
www.zend.com
www.devshed.com

"Professional PHP Programming" by Wrox Press has a good chapter on OOP if you are willing to dish out 40 bucks for a book.

Just a note: if you'll read an article and don't get it - read it again. And make sure that you write code along with it. Then more creativity you use - the better.