Assuring good style for object-oriented programs

Karl Lieberherr; Ian M. Holland

doi:10.1109/52.35588

Abstract

The language-independent Law of Demeter, which encodes the ideas of encapsulation and modularity in an easy-to-follow form for object-oriented programmers, is presented. The law was developed during the design and implementation of the Demeter system, which provides a high-level interface to class-based, object-oriented systems. Two forms of the law, the class and object forms, are described. Its motivation is to ensure that the software is as modular as possible. Principles covered by the law include coupling control, information hiding, information restriction, information localization, and structured induction. An example is given to show how the law is applied, and valid violations are identified. It is shown how to transform a method that does not satisfy the law into one that does.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>

Keywords

Encapsulation (networking)Computer scienceModular designModularity (biology)Object-oriented programmingClass (philosophy)Object (grammar)Programming languageObject-oriented designSoftwareSoftware engineeringTheoretical computer scienceArtificial intelligenceComputer security

Affiliated Institutions

Northeastern University US

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Publication Info

Year: 1989
Type: article
Volume: 6
Issue: 5
Pages: 38-48
Citations: 226
Access: Closed

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APA Style

                            
                                    Karl Lieberherr, 
                                
                                    Ian M. Holland
                                
                            (1989). 
                            Assuring good style for object-oriented programs. 
                            IEEE Software
                            , 6
                            (5)
                            , 38-48.
                            https://doi.org/10.1109/52.35588

Identifiers

DOI: 10.1109/52.35588