Interface, Not Implementation Programming

According to what I recently learned, programming to an interface and not an implementation is one of modern software development’s “most powerful design principles.” And this is a key to building some flexible, maintainable, and professional software systems. In this blog, I’ll go over the key characteristics of this idea.

To understand this idea, the source says that programming to an interface and not an implementation is about separating what the program does and how it accomplishes the tasks it’s performing, or will be performing. The primary characteristics include abstraction over specificity, decoupling components, enhanced flexibility and extensibility, ease of maintenance and testing, and finally, polymorphism and reusability.

Abstraction over specificity means that when programming to abstractions (like interfaces), the behaviors should be without detailing the exact implementations taking place. “This approach allows for multiple implementations that fulfill the same purpose but differ in internal workings.” 

For a note: coupling in software design is where it measures the interdependence between modules or components which indicates how much they rely on each other. Low coupling is desirable. The second characteristic is Decoupling components. This means that those components become less dependent on specific implementations that cause loose coupling. “When components are decoupled, they can be easily replaced or modified without impacting other parts of the system.”

Enhanced flexibility and extensibility is where the developers introduce the new functionalities significantly changing the code and they can also swap out different implementations that “adhere to the same interface.”

Ease of maintenance and testing is the fourth principle or characteristic of “Programming to an interface, not an implementation.” This is where the testing can become simpler since the interfaces now allow for creations of mock or stub implementations. “This isolation helps developers verify each component’s behavior independently, supporting faster maintenance cycles.”

And finally, the last characteristic is Polymorphism and reusability. This is where the objects are more interchangeable, which in turn, enhances the polymorphism when focusing on interfaces. It leads to reusable code which helps a lot when the same interface can also support different implementations for various scenarios it could encounter.

This is important to know since these principles are applied to different programming paradigms. Programming paradigms are fundamental styles or approaches that are used for structuring and writing computer programs. They’re like blueprints when building a building except with problem-solving. And “programming to an interface and not an implementation” is often associated with Object-Oriented Programming, OOP, one of the different types of programming paradigms. Some of the other paradigms that this principle can be applied to are functional programming or FP and procedural programming.

Source: https://medium.com/@Masoncoding/programming-to-an-interface-not-an-implementation-024d01815070 

From the blog CS@Worcester – The Progress of Allana R by Allana Richardson and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

For my final self-directed blog of the semester, I decided to dive deeper into linters and their function. In class, we had briefly gone over linters, specifically their use to correct non-inclusive or problematic language. This is useful when creating any form of documentation because we want it to be as neutral and non-problematic as possible. I found a blog post from Codacy regarding information about linters, their benefits and drawbacks, and some popular linters for different programming languages.

The article starts by detailing the history of linters, they were created by computer scientist Stephen C. Johnson in 1978 as a tool used to find errors within written code. The name was a reference to the lint trap in a dryer, which was designed to catch the unwanted lint in the machine during the drying process. The linter is a useful tool for static code analysis, which is the process of examining errors in code before executing the code. According to the article, linters can help find “coding errors, stylistic inconsistencies, bugs, violations of coding standards, and potential security vulnerabilities.” It does this by checking your code against a predefined set of rules.

The benefits of linting are that it will reduce the number of errors written into code, it creates a consistent standard for coding practices, and can help improve the objectivity of code. Some argue that the downsides of linting include too many false positives and can negatively affect the performance of programmers in the early stages of development. However, it is generally accepted that linting is a useful tool and is adopted by many development teams.

Prior to this course and the activity we completed in class, I was not aware of linters or what they could do. Most of my code errors over the years would get cleaned up by the debugger in my IDE or by any error messages that came up upon execution. I was not aware of this as a tool that I could use in my development. Though I do not program often, or plan on pursuing it as a career path, I enjoy learning about all aspects of the field. The next time I have to do any kind of programming project, I will be adding a linter to my IDE so I can have a more consistent program with less errors. I enjoy learning more about all aspects of the field to become a more well-rounded academic and professional.

Source Article: https://blog.codacy.com/what-is-a-linter

From the blog CS@Worcester – zach goddard by Zach Goddard and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.