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From: je@bton.ac.uk (John English)
Subject: Re: abstraction and encapsulation (Re: Will Java kill C++?)
Message-ID: <DrFzuL.3F0@bton.ac.uk>
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Organization: University of Brighton, UK
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References: <Dq3984.KBD@news.hawaii.edu> <TMB.96May13085010@best.best.com>
Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 10:30:19 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.java:50349 comp.lang.c++:189718 comp.lang.eiffel:14114 comp.lang.ada:45715 comp.lang.smalltalk:38762

. (tmb@best.com) wrote:
: In my experience, making designs extensible takes time and effort.  It
: also makes the design harder to understand for other people.  That
: cost is worth it if you plan on reusing that software.  But a lot of
: software doesn't need to be reused, however.  [...snip...]

Extensibility is important for maintenance too; a lot of maintenance
changes involve adding extra bells and whistles which can be a major
problem if extensibility *wasn't* designed for.  This (IMHO) is a
much more important consideration than reuse, which as you said is
something that isn't needed that often.

-- 
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John English <je@brighton.ac.uk>, Dept. of Computing, University of Brighton
  "Disks are divided into sex and tractors..."
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