Rust for C-Programmers

20.2 Problems and Criticisms of OOP

Despite its success, OOP has faced criticisms:

• Rigid Class Hierarchies: Inheritance can introduce fragility. Changes in a base class may have unexpected consequences in derived classes.
• Excessive Class Usage: Everything in some languages is forced into a class structure, even when simpler solutions would suffice.
• Runtime Penalties: Virtual function calls (common in C++ and Java) incur overhead because the exact function to be called must be determined at runtime.
• Over-Encapsulation: Hiding too much can complicate debugging, as vital information may remain obscured behind private fields and methods.

Rust offers alternative strategies—such as composition, traits, and modular visibility—addressing many of these concerns while still enabling flexible design.