Re: Designing lower level classes.

From:
=?UTF-8?B?RXJpayBXaWtzdHLDtm0=?= <Erik-wikstrom@telia.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:00:03 GMT
Message-ID:
<7kO9k.660$U5.667@newsb.telia.net>
On 2008-06-29 17:45, Stefan Ram wrote:

Gunter Schelfhout <no.mail@please.com.invalid> writes:

Ok, since I am still in the design phase, it's probably better to keep
things separated as much as I can.


  It is not even required to keep it separated right from the
  start.

  You also can have some ??dirty?? code parts in the first version
  where data processing and UI interface code is mixed and
  refactor it later to get the separation. Not everyone is so
  perfect that he can write it all separated from the start.

  Between sessions of coding to extend the set of features,
  there always should be sessions to improve the quality of the
  code without adding new features. Nobody can write everything
  in the best possible way the first time. But one will
  eventually not be able to maintain the code anymore if one
  never refactors it to improve separation of responsibilities.


I disagree, for the same reason. Nobody is perfect and once things work
it is all to easy to not refactor the code just to get a better design.
Write code with good separation from the beginning and then refactor the
interfaces between modules if needed. Also, this way you will keep the
"dirty" pieces of code well contained from other modules and you can
focus on one module at a time.

While I do agree that you should stop developing every once in a while
and take some time to clean up the code it might not always be possible
(while it is short-sighted many companies do not care about refactoring
until they absolutely have to). I believe in trying to get as good
design as possible from the beginning, since it (usually) keeps down the
decay-rate of the code. Of course, if you have good processes then it is
less of a problem.

--
Erik Wikstr??m

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