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Is the concept of OOP intimately tied to allocating objects on the heap? Is it possible to write normal OOP without creating excessive objects on the heap?

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migrated from superuser.com Jan 9 at 19:21

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No, OOP has nothing to do with where objects reside in memory. For example, instances of the same class can be allocated statically, on the heap, or on the stack in C++. In other languages, like Python, memory management is almost transparent, so the question of location doesn't really apply.

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Well, the question of location applies when you look at the implementation. And most implementations allocated practically everything dynamically (though the downsides are offset by tuning the way that memory is allocated). However, PyPy sometimes removes dynamic allocations completely (if the JIT compiler can prove they don't escape), and sometimes optimizes them (delays them, doing some work without touching the heap before allocating). – delnan Jan 9 at 20:56
@delnan: Sure, different language & implementations of them can and will do things differently, but the answer to the OP's question is still that the concept of OOP is not intimately tied to allocating objects on the heap, even if it's commonly done. – martineau Jan 9 at 21:25
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Technically no, but "normal OOP" assumes dynamic allocation, for which a heap is a good general-purpose mechanism. You could certainly try using some other method, but you'd probably wind up re-inventing the heap.

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