oop - Is object-oriented PHP slow?

Question

I used to use procedural-style PHP. Later, I used to create some classes. Later, I learned Zend Framework and started to program in OOP style. Now my programs are based on my own framework (with elements of cms, but without any design in framework), which is built on the top of the Zend Framework.

Now it consists of lots classes. But the more I program, more I'm afraid. I'm afraid that my program will be slow because of them I'm afraid to add every another one class which can help me to develop but can slow the application.

All I know is that including lots of files slows application (using eAccelerator + gathering all the code in one file can speed up application 20 times!), but I have no idea if creating new classes and objects slows PHP by itself.

Does anyone have any information about it?

Answer 1

This bugs me. See...procedural code is not always spaghetti code, yet the OOP fanboys always presume that it is. I've written several procedural based web apps as well as an IRC services daemon in PHP. Amazingly, it seems to outperform most of the other ones that are out there and editing it is super easy. One of my friends who generally does OOP took a look at it and said "no code has the right to be this clean"

Conversely, I wrote my own PHP framework (out of boredom) and it was done in a purely OOP manner.

A good programmer can write great procedural code without the overhead classes bring. A bad programmer who uses OOP will always write crappy OOP code that slows things down.

There is no one right answer to which is better for PHP, but rather which is better for the exact scenario.