[leshow]

> You don't have to have a vague definition of good design or a vague definition of FP. Follow a strict but commonly agreed upon definition of both and derive a proof from there

There is no such definition, just like there isn't one for OO. You could of course make one up and then test it qualitatively, but that's far & away from a proof.

I don't believe a 'proof' for something like this exists, if you disagree, I challenge you to find such a proof, or link to any resource describing one.

[crimsonalucard]

I am indeed talking about making something up. Similar to how an the signal to noise ratio for rating signals is made up. It can't be that hard.

Following the analogy for the SNR, you can indeed prove that one signal is "better" in terms of SNR to another signal, simply by calculating the number.

I get a bit more into something like this in another reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22071522

Obviously the "ratio" I describe in my example above is something I pulled out of my ass and has serious flaws but I'm talking about traveling in a similar direction to find a rigorous "proof." You would need to define a minimal turing complete assembly language and and do the same for OOP and FP to even begin to proceed forward with such thing.

Of course what I describe can only say a given FP program is "better" then a given "OOP" program. The way to a general proof would be to find something like all the ratios of all possible foundational programs with one or two assembly primitives for OOP and FP then by induction we prove that because all programs are built from these foundational primitives the paradigm with the the foundational primitives with the "better" numbers are indeed better.

There's probably other numbers as well like the amount of references.