Consequences
The consequences of an object orgy are essentially a loss of the benefits of encapsulation:
- Unrestricted access makes it hard for the reader to reason about the behaviour of an object. This is because direct access to its internal state means any other part of the system can manipulate it, increasing the amount of code to be examined, and opening the door to future abuse.
- As a consequence of the difficulty of reasoning, design by contract is effectively impossible.
- If much code takes advantage of the lack of encapsulation, the result is a scarcely maintainable maze of interactions, commonly known as a rat's nest or spaghetti code.
- The original design is obscured by the excessively broad interfaces to objects.
- The broad interfaces make it harder to re-implement a class without disturbing the rest of the system. This is especially hard when the clients of the class are developed by a different team or organisation.
Read more about this topic: Object Orgy
Famous quotes containing the word consequences:
“Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“War is thus divine in itself, since it is a law of the world. War is divine through its consequences of a supernatural nature which are as much general as particular.... War is divine in the mysterious glory that surrounds it and in the no less inexplicable attraction that draws us to it.... War is divine by the manner in which it breaks out.”
—Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821)
“We are still barely conscious of how harmful it is to treat children in a degrading manner. Treating them with respect and recognizing the consequences of their being humiliated are by no means intellectual matters; otherwise, their importance would long since have been generally recognized.”
—Alice Miller (20th century)