one of the cardinal rules of OO is: "each unit (method, object, whatever) should do exactly one thing"[3]. this rule is universally ignored in all the big OO co

one of the cardinal rules of OO is: "each unit (method, object, whatever) should do exactly one thing"[3]. this rule is universally ignored in all the big OO codebases I've seen[1]. applying this rule with discipline, forces you to have a better understanding of what your code is actually doing. I think, that applying this rule even in OO languages forces you towards "functional-style in the small, object-oriented in the large", and the only difference is your code will have fewer classes/methods, and more high-level data-structures with operations like list.filter on them. [1] i get it, refactoring takes discipline and time, and desire to practice and learn[2], and a team of like minded people, on top of sensible business constraints. [2] http://www.dustingetz.com/nostrademons-75h-work-week-harmful-to-personal-growth http://www.dustingetz.com/nostrademons-75h-work-week-harmful... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_responsibility_principle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_responsibility_principle edit: added source for single-responsibility principle