gistfile1.vb

' Okay, so this isn't a great example and because it's so simple it's a bit unfair to the 
' object-oriented one. But hopefully it gets the gist across.

' Here's a made-up class with only one important method that does a tiny bit of calculation, in 
' a very object-oriented, stateful way:

Public Class Blah

  Private x As Integer
  Private y As Integer
  Private otherProperty As Integer

  Public Sub New(ByVal x As Integer, ByVal y As Integer)
    Me.x = x
    Me.y = y
    otherProperty = 0
  End Sub

  Public Sub Calculate()
    otherProperty = (x * 0.5) + (y * 0.6)
  End Sub
End Class

' Use pattern is like so:
Dim b As Blah = New Blah(5, 7)
b.Calculate()
log(b.otherProperty)

' Here's the same thing but with a more functional approach:

Public Module Blah2

  Public Shared Function Calculate(ByVal x As Integer, ByVal y As Integer)
    Return (x * 0.5) + (y * 0.6)
  End Function

End Module

' Use pattern is like so:
Dim otherProperty As Integer = Blah2.Calculate(5, 7)
log(otherProperty)

' So, better suited for some things (but not all). The main reason I like to use this style when appropriate is that
' it reduces the mental load - you don't have to keep track of instance variables, everything you need is an argument.
' I like it less as the number of arguments goes up. Fortunately many functions turn out to not really need that
' many arguments