Functional vs. Object-Oriented: Comparing How Programming Paradigms Affect the Architectural Characteristics of Systems

Briza Mel Dias; Renato Cordeiro Ferreira; Alfredo Goldman

doi:10.5753/sbqs.2025.15170

Functional vs. Object-Oriented: Comparing How Programming Paradigms Affect the Architectural Characteristics of Systems

Briza Mel Dias
, Renato Cordeiro Ferreira
, Alfredo Goldman

Data Governance

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

Abstract

This study compares the impact of adopting object-oriented programming (OOP) or functional programming (FP) on the architectural characteristics of software systems. For that, it examines the design and implementation of a Digital Wallet system developed in Kotlin (for OOP) and Scala (for FP). The comparison is made through a mixed-method approach. The self-ethnographic qualitative analysis provides a side-by-side comparison of both implementations, revealing the perspective of those writing such code. The survey-based quantitative analysis gathers feedback from developers with diverse backgrounds, showing their impressions of those reading this code. Hopefully, these results may be useful for developers seeking to decide which paradigm is best suited for their next project.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Brazilian Software Quality Symposium (SBQS)
Pages	584
Number of pages	594
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5753/sbqs.2025.15170
Publication status	Published - 4 Nov 2025

Keywords

Software Architecture
Programming Paradigms
Object-Oriented Programming
Functional Programming
Empirical Software Engineering

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10.5753/sbqs.2025.15170

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title = "Functional vs. Object-Oriented: Comparing How Programming Paradigms Affect the Architectural Characteristics of Systems",

abstract = "This study compares the impact of adopting object-oriented programming (OOP) or functional programming (FP) on the architectural characteristics of software systems. For that, it examines the design and implementation of a Digital Wallet system developed in Kotlin (for OOP) and Scala (for FP). The comparison is made through a mixed-method approach. The self-ethnographic qualitative analysis provides a side-by-side comparison of both implementations, revealing the perspective of those writing such code. The survey-based quantitative analysis gathers feedback from developers with diverse backgrounds, showing their impressions of those reading this code. Hopefully, these results may be useful for developers seeking to decide which paradigm is best suited for their next project.",

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AU - Ferreira, Renato Cordeiro

AU - Goldman, Alfredo

PY - 2025/11/4

Y1 - 2025/11/4

N2 - This study compares the impact of adopting object-oriented programming (OOP) or functional programming (FP) on the architectural characteristics of software systems. For that, it examines the design and implementation of a Digital Wallet system developed in Kotlin (for OOP) and Scala (for FP). The comparison is made through a mixed-method approach. The self-ethnographic qualitative analysis provides a side-by-side comparison of both implementations, revealing the perspective of those writing such code. The survey-based quantitative analysis gathers feedback from developers with diverse backgrounds, showing their impressions of those reading this code. Hopefully, these results may be useful for developers seeking to decide which paradigm is best suited for their next project.

AB - This study compares the impact of adopting object-oriented programming (OOP) or functional programming (FP) on the architectural characteristics of software systems. For that, it examines the design and implementation of a Digital Wallet system developed in Kotlin (for OOP) and Scala (for FP). The comparison is made through a mixed-method approach. The self-ethnographic qualitative analysis provides a side-by-side comparison of both implementations, revealing the perspective of those writing such code. The survey-based quantitative analysis gathers feedback from developers with diverse backgrounds, showing their impressions of those reading this code. Hopefully, these results may be useful for developers seeking to decide which paradigm is best suited for their next project.

KW - Software Architecture

KW - Programming Paradigms

KW - Object-Oriented Programming

KW - Functional Programming

KW - Empirical Software Engineering

UR - https://doi.org/10.5753/sbqs.2025.15170

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DO - 10.5753/sbqs.2025.15170

M3 - Conference contribution

SP - 584

BT - Brazilian Software Quality Symposium (SBQS)

ER -

Functional vs. Object-Oriented: Comparing How Programming Paradigms Affect the Architectural Characteristics of Systems

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Keywords

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