Last modified by chrisby on 2024/03/03 17:01

From version 3.2
edited by chrisby
on 2024/03/03 14:50
Change comment: There is no comment for this version
To version 3.9
edited by chrisby
on 2024/03/03 15:46
Change comment: There is no comment for this version

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... ... @@ -1,32 +1,42 @@
1 +### Use Cases
2 +
3 +This example is intended to demonstrate the extensibility differences between data structures and objects by extending them with
4 +
5 +1. an Area() function (extending behavior)
6 +1. a rectangle type (extending data type)
7 +
1 1  ### Data Structure Style
2 2  
3 - type Square struct {
10 + interface GeometricObject {}
11 +
12 + class Square implements GeometricObject {
4 4   length float
5 5   }
6 6  
7 - type Circle struct {
16 + class Circle implements GeometricObject {
8 8   radius float
9 9   }
10 10  
11 - func Area(g GeometricObject) float {
20 + function Circumference(g GeometricObject) float {
12 12   switch type(g):
13 13   case Square:
14 - return g.length * g.length
15 - case Circle:
16 - return PI * g.radius * g.radius
17 - }
18 -
19 - func Circumference(g GeometricObject) float {
20 - switch type(g):
21 - case Square:
22 22   return 4 * g.length
23 23   case Circle:
24 24   return 2 * PI * g.radius
25 25   }
26 26  
28 +1. Adding an Area() function with a very similar anatomy to Circumference() is easy because it only requires adding new code.
29 +1. Adding a new datatype, Rectangle, is harder because it requires touching existing code, namely any functions like Circumference() or Area() that need to be enabled handle this datatype.
30 +
31 +####
32 +
27 27  #### Object-Oriented Style
28 28  
29 - class Square {
35 + interface GeometricObject {
36 + Circumference() float
37 + }
38 +
39 + class Square implements GeometricObject {
30 30   length float
31 31  
32 32   constructor(length float) {
... ... @@ -33,16 +33,12 @@
33 33   this.length = length
34 34   }
35 35  
36 - func Area() float {
37 - return this.length * this.length
38 - }
39 -
40 40   func Circumference() float {
41 41   return 4 * this.length
42 42   }
43 43   }
44 44  
45 - class Circle {
51 + class Circle implements GeometricObject {
46 46   radius float
47 47  
48 48   constructor(radius float) {
... ... @@ -49,11 +49,15 @@
49 49   this.radius = radius
50 50   }
51 51  
52 - func Area() float {
53 - return PI * this.radius * this.radius
54 - }
55 -
56 56   func Circumference() float {
57 57   return 2 * PI * this.radius
58 58   }
59 59   }
62 +
63 +1. Adding a function Area() to the GeometricObject interface is hard because it requires touching existing code, namely extending all Square and Circle classes with the new function.
64 +1. Adding a new datatype, Rectangle, is easy because only new code is added, namely a Rectangle class.
65 +
66 +### Conclusion
67 +
68 +* The lesson here is that data structures are easy to extend with functions and hard to extend with data type, and objects are easy to extend with other objects but hard to extend with functionality.
69 +* Although the difference between the two styles may seem insignificant in this simplified example, it has serious implications in complex production codebases with multiple data types and behaviors.