211: Future-Proofing Your Codebase

Thoughts on Object-Oriented Design and maintainable code

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Unrelated: Benefits of Dependency Injection

Dependency Injection makes software dependencies explicit, enabling self-documenting code. Inject dependencies to remove unstable knowledge. It's not the class itself that matters, but the message you send to it. Your classes will be coupled by being mindful of dependencies and injecting them. This is especially important when a class contains embedded references to a message that will likely change. Isolating the reference provides some insurance against being affected by that change. By injecting dependencies, we can ensure that our code is testable and decoupled, making it easier to reason about and change. The cost of implementing dependency injection is low, while its benefits are significant. In this chapter, we will explore the virtues of dependency injection and the best practices that enable us to use this technique in our software.

Define defaults and isolate multi-parameter initialization to make code more transparent. Additionally, some classes are more likely to change than others, not only in your code but also in the code you use. Depend on things that change less often than you do to create future-proof applications. These principles pave the road to maintenance nirvana.

Off Topic: Future-Proofing Your Codebase

Good Object-Oriented code should follow specific guidelines. Transparent code shows how changes affect the code. Changes should be proportional to the benefits. Existing code should be usable in different contexts. The code should encourage the perpetuation of these qualities.

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