class Hello {
public static void main(String args[]) {
System.out.println("Hello, world!");
}
}
Versus:
(print "Hello, world!")
Yes, this is a deliberately extreme example, but the point is that object-oriented code does not make it easier to structure CS101-level programs. All it does is introduce a bunch of keywords that students have trouble understanding until they are sitting in a much higher-level course.
I think it can help once you've dealt with dictionaries and functions. Classes are handy for storing a bunch of variables and functions together, and that's how I'd teach it.
The problem there is you have to know which variables and functions belong together. You have to commit to coupling them early on, meaning you have to make a design decision that a beginning programmer might not be prepared to make. This means they may struggle figuring out the best way to organize their code when solving problems when such organizational concerns are really not that important.
Here's a sample programming problem a beginner might encounter: CIDR data is available as a "127.0.0.1/8" style string and you need to access the IP and Netmask separately. In python, the simplest, most straightforward path to a solution that still results in encapsulated, re-usable code is to write a standalone function that accepts a string and returns a tuple. You could also create a CIDR class with a "to_tuple" method, or that stores the values in 'ip' and 'netmask' attributes, but this is simply extra scaffolding and without knowing more about the larger context of the program it's impossible to know whether such a design will be beneficial.
The problem with beginners is that they'll see the straightforward solution, but because they're not just trying to solve a problem but also demonstrate "Object Oriented Programming" skills to their teacher, they're going to worry about doing a whole bunch of extra work that may not be appropriate. I believe this is wasted energy that could be spent gaining real experience solving problems and learning about how computers and software work.
