A Game Comparative Study: Object-Oriented Paradigm and Notification-Oriented Paradigm

Abstract

This paper presents a new programming paradigm named Notification-Oriented Paradigm (NOP) and analyses the performance aspects of NOP programs by means of an experiment. NOP provides a new manner to conceive, structure, and execute software, which would allow better performance, causal-knowledge organization, and decoupling than standard solutions based upon usual paradigms. These paradigms are essentially Imperative Paradigm (IP) and Declarative Paradigm (DP). In short, DP solutions are considered easier to use than IP solutions due to the concept of high-level programming. However, they are considered slower in execution and less flexible in development. Anyway, both paradigms present similar drawbacks such as redundant causal-evaluation and strongly coupled entities, which decrease the software performance and the processing distribution feasibility. These problems exist due to an orientation to a monolithic inference mechanism based upon sequential evaluation by searching on passive computational entities. NOP proposes another way to structure software and make its inferences, which is based upon small, collaborative, and decoupled computational entities whose interaction happens through precise notifications. In this context, this paper presents a quantitative comparison between two equivalent implementations of a computer game simulator (Pacman simulator), one developed according to the principles of Object-Oriented Paradigm (OOP/IP) in C++ and other developed according to the principles of NOP. The results obtained from the experiments demonstrate, however, a quite lower performance of NOP implementation. This happened because NOP applications are still developed using a framework based on C++. Besides, the paper shows that optimizations in the NOP framework improve NOP program performance, thereby evidencing the necessity of developing a NOP language/compiler.