I've found that converting to an OOP style has made my code much faster to write and easier to maintain. It has really helped me to think in terms of objects. It was also a great way to get my SQL out of all the pages. So whenever I want to list a user's info, and say I add new info, such as letting them add their AIM screen name, now I only have to update one function and every page reflects it. Yes, you can easily do this with regular, non-class functions, but when writing, it's a lot easier to think "Oh, the user class has a getInfo() function, I use that here, instead of writing the sql here. As for the speed - I entered the game contest here - I wrote my site in 2 days. Now, I'm still adding a few features, but I wrote a game that exceeded the critera in a few hours. Let's say 5. Partly because I already had a few classes I was able to port over quickly, and partly because just the way of thinking has made everything faster for me.