To object or not to object

Let's say that I want to write several programs that use a particular file, so I want to package up all the code that refers to that file in a reusable module that I can "do" from the various programs that use that file. To make the source code of the various programs easier to understand, I want to apply some naming conventions to the data items in that common file. I personally like prefixes, for reasons not relevant at this time.

So, I could do something like this:

PROPMAST-ID: ""
PROPMAST-ADDRESS: ""
PROPMAST-OWNER: ""
etc.

OR, I could do something like this:

PROPMAST: make object! [
ID: ""
ADDRESS: ""
OWNER: ""
etc.
]
and then refer to the items as PROPMAST/ID, PROPMAST/ADDRESS, etc.

I believe I understand HOW to do this (I have done it in at least one situation), but I don't understand WHY I might choose one approach over the other. Is there some reason why one way might be preferred/recommended/better?

Thank you.

Interesting. I didn't even know you COULD pass an object to a function. Not only that, it never would have OCCURRED to me to do so. I am so deep in the third-generation-programming box I don't know if I ever will get out. REBOL is like therapy.

I'm not a fan of objects, but it avoids words variable to be overwritten. Remember that object can contains:

• variable
• functions
• objects

look here:

Code:

>> a: make object! [         
    test1: "Hello"
    test2: $2
    test3: func [] [print "Hi"]
    ]
>> b: make object! [
    test5: 10:00 
    test6: a
    ]
>> ? b
B is an object of value:
  test5          time!    10:00
  test6          object!  [test1 test2 test3]