Class Design
Proper class design in Java is very important. It is important to both the programmer and to the company or individual who uses the program. For the programmer, it is essential in order to keep the class organized and well documented so that revisions can be easily made and so that the code can be followed in an order that is well laid out. This allows the programmer to easily identify the separate parts and understand what each part does even after it has been written for some time without looking at it. For the company or individual who uses the program, good class design is important in order for them to be able to understand what the program is doing and how they can convey to the programmer what additions or changes they would like done to the program. There are many different ideas on class design, some of which will be discussed in this document. Each developer has its own ideas of what good class design is and the programmer must understand exactly what the developer expects in order to meet those demands.
Even though most developers have different specifications for class design, there is usually a common structure for the design as described by Bill Venners in his article about class design. He says that a common structure is the following:
“1.Specification
2.Design
3.Implementation
4.Integration and test”
(WWW 1)
This common structure is then modified by each individual developer to meet their own specifications for proper class design. Typically in the specification phase, all the concerned parties come together and decide on some common ideas or visions of what the program should do and how it should go about it. For the design phase, typically the programmer begins to plan out how to implement the specifications into a class. This generally includes deciding how many individual programs will make up the class and deciding what libraries will be needed including those that are available in Java and those that need to be created. Also, the programmer lays out a general hierarchy for how the program will function. For the implementation phase, the programmer actually writes out the code for the program including various loops and statements, listing variables, and compiling, all of which are carefully documented. Lastly the Integration and test phase is carried out. This generally includes the concerned parties getting together and testing...