On Friday 13 April 2007 20:44, Keith Lofstrom spake thus: > I tried to make > all the apps accept the command line options of any of the apps (where > relevant), by sharing common code, without changing their behavior > without the extra options. I believe this is related to "polymorphism",
What you describe is increasing the consistency in the applications' interfaces. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_polymorphism) gives this definition for polymorphism: <quote> In computer science, polymorphism means allowing a single definition to be used with different types of data (specifically, different classes of objects). For instance, a polymorphic function definition can replace several type-specific ones, and a single polymorphic operator can act in expressions of various types. Many programming languages and paradigms implement some forms of polymorphism; for a popular example, see polymorphism in object-oriented programming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymorphism_in_object-oriented_programming). </quote> Mostly you when we talk about polymorphism, we are referring to the OO type. > a technique used in "refactoring". I use both terms in quotes because > I'm not sure I am using them right. I understand "refactoring" to mean > changing the guts without changing the external behavior, which is what > I am hoping we can do. Again, to quote someone who will say it better than me, in this case Martin Fowler in the book "Refactoring": <quote> Refactoring is the process of changing a software system in such a way that it does not alter the external behavior of the code yet improves its internal structure. It is a disciplined way to clean up code that minimizes the chance of introducing bugs. In essence when you refactor you are improving the design of the code after it has been written. </quote> Note the emphasis on improving the design after the event. > Volunteers? I could devote say 2 hours a week. I couldn't guarantee more. This is my own time of course. Cheers, Eric -- Eric Mountain _______________________________________________ Dirvish mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.dirvish.org/mailman/listinfo/dirvish
