Category Archives: SOLID

Understanding SOLID Principles: A Guide

As a student learning software design, I’ve heard about the SOLID principles in class, but I wanted to dive deeper to understand how to actually use them. I came across a blog post called “SOLID Principles — The Definitive Guide” by Midhun Vincent on Medium, which breaks down each of the five principles in a way that makes sense for someone new to object-oriented design. The guide was really helpful and lined up well with what we’re covering in my course, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to see how these principles could improve my coding now and in the future.

The article explains the SOLID principles, which are five important guidelines for creating object-oriented software that’s easier to understand, maintain, and extend. The first principle, the Single Responsibility Principle (SRP), says that each class should do only one thing, making it easier to maintain and modify. The Open/Closed Principle (OCP) suggests that classes should be open for extension but closed for modification, meaning you can add features without changing the original code. The Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP) ensures that subclasses can replace their parent class without breaking the system. The Interface Segregation Principle (ISP) advises creating small, specific interfaces rather than large, general ones. Finally, the Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP) suggests that high-level modules should depend on abstractions, not low-level modules, which makes the code more flexible. These principles help make code cleaner, more modular, and easier to adapt over time.

I picked this article because, while the SOLID principles are useful, they can seem pretty abstract at first. The post explains them in a way that feels practical, with examples that make it easier to apply the principles to real-world coding problems. Plus, the examples connected well with the projects I’ve worked on in my course, especially when it comes to organizing code and making it easier to debug. Seeing how these principles prevent code from becoming too messy gave me a new way of thinking about my own assignments.

My Takeaways and Reflection

Before reading this post, I knew the basic ideas behind SOLID, but I wasn’t sure how to apply them in my own code. Now, I get why each principle is important and how they can save time by reducing debugging and refactoring. For example, the Single Responsibility Principle made me realize that I often give classes too many responsibilities, which complicates fixing bugs. By applying SRP, I can keep things simpler and reduce errors.

Looking ahead, I plan to use these principles in my projects, especially the Open/Closed Principle and Interface Segregation Principle. I can see how they’ll help me write code that’s easier to update and adapt. Understanding SOLID will definitely give me a strong foundation as I take on more complex projects in the future.

Resource:

View at Medium.com

View at Medium.com

From the blog Computer Science From a Basketball Fan by Brandon Njuguna and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

GRASP

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcqTrlL_Htw

This video from YouTube is titled “Design Patterns GRASP // Object Oriented Analysis and Design (ICS).” As stated in the title, it goes over the design patterns of GRASP, or General Responsibility Assignment Software Patterns. GRASP is a set of 9 principles that relate to object-oriented design that help developers/engineers assign certain responsibilities to certain variables, classes, objects, etc. in software. The overall purpose of GRASP isn’t to create “fancy” code, but rather to create maintainable and reusable code/software. The 9 principles are information expert, creator, controller, low coupling, high cohesion, polymorphism, pure fabrication, indirection, and protected variations. “Information expert” places responsibility on classes that have the required information to complete it, wanted behaviors and data are put together. “Creator” places responsibility for the creation of instances of classes to classes that would use it. “Controller” places responsibility for handling system events to a class that describes the event, known as the controller. “Low coupling” states that classes should be as independent as they can be from other classes. “High cohesion” states that classes should have clear purposes with responsibilities that relate to it. “Polymorphism” is implemented so new behaviors can be added without changing preexisting code. “Pure fabrication” states that new classes should be created if there isn’t an already existing one that fulfills a desired requirement. “Indirection” states that dependencies among classes should be minimized so changes can be made without having an impact on other parts of the system. Lastly, “protected variations” encourages developers to design the system in a way that variations in behaviors are negated through encapsulation. 

I chose this particular source because we haven’t covered this topic in class yet and it seemed interesting, I found the topic from the syllabus. This video had a low amount of views and I wanted to give it a chance. After watching the video, I appreciated the fact that the information was presented in a straightforward manner and offered visual examples for each of the 9 principles of GRASP. After learning about Agile methodologies, it was interesting to learn about GRASP, because in my opinion it seems as though instead of being a set of principles of workplace improvement, GRASP seems to be a set of principles for actual work improvement. Overall, the material impacted me in a positive way because I appreciate the idea of everything in a system/software having a certain responsibility, and can definitely see how this will benefit me in the future when I work on more projects related to software development. I will certainly keep GRASP in mind for these future projects. 

From the blog CS@Worcester – Shawn In Tech by Shawn Budzinski and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Understanding SOLID Principles: A Guide 

As a student learning software design, I’ve come across the SOLID principles in a few lectures, but I wanted a deeper dive to really understand how to apply them. I recently read a blog post titled “SOLID Principles — The Definitive Guide” by Midhun Vincent on Medium. This guide breaks down each of the five SOLID principles in a straightforward way, with examples and explanations that actually make sense for someone still new to object-oriented design. The article is totally in line with what we’re covering in my course, so I figured it was a great chance to see how these principles could improve my coding style now and in the future.

Summary of the Selected Resource

The article explains the SOLID principles, which are five key guidelines for designing object-oriented software that is easier to understand, extend, and maintain. The first principle, the Single Responsibility Principle (SRP), emphasizes that each class should focus on a single task, making the code simpler to maintain and update. Next is the Open/Closed Principle (OCP), which suggests that classes should be open for extension but closed for modification, allowing developers to add new features without altering the original code structure. The Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP)follows, which ensures that objects of a superclass can be replaced with objects of subclasses without causing issues in the application. Then there’s the Interface Segregation Principle (ISP), which advises against creating large, general-purpose interfaces and instead encourages smaller, more specific ones that suit the exact needs of different clients. Finally, the Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP) recommends that high-level modules should not rely on low-level modules but rather on abstractions, which reduces dependency and enhances flexibility. Together, these principles form a strong foundation for writing clean, modular code that can handle future changes more gracefully.

Why I Chose This Resource

I chose this post because the SOLID principles are really useful in building better code but can feel abstract at first. The article breaks down each principle in a way that makes them feel practical and achievable. Also, the examples in the post connect well with coding challenges we’ve faced in our course projects, especially in terms of keeping code organized and easy to debug. Seeing how SOLID principles can prevent code from becoming a tangled mess gave me a new perspective on how I approach my own assignments.

My Takeaways and Reflection

Before reading this post, I understood the theory behind the SOLID principles but not really how to implement them in my own code. Now, I can see why each principle matters and how they can actually save time by reducing the need for debugging and refactoring down the line. The Single Responsibility Principle, for example, made me think about how I often give one class way too many jobs, which then makes fixing issues complicated. By applying SRP, I can keep my classes simpler and less error-prone.

Moving forward, I’m planning to use these principles as I work on my projects, especially with the Open/Closed Principle and the Interface Segregation Principle. I can see how they’ll help me write code that’s easier to adapt if requirements change or if I add new features later. In the future, I think understanding SOLID will give me a solid foundation (pun intended!) as I move into more complex software development work.

Link to the Resource

https://medium.com/android-news/solid-principles-the-definitive-guide-75e30a284dea

View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com

From the blog Computer Science From a Basketball Fan by Brandon Njuguna and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

SOLID

The SOLID principle helps in reducing tight coupling, which means a group of classes are highly dependent on one another which we should avoid in our code. The opposite, which is loosely coupled classes that minimize changes in our code, helps in making code more reusable, maintainable, flexible, and stable.

This principle is an acronym of the five principles which is given here below:

  • Single Responsibility Principle: This principle states that “a class should have only one reason to change” whoch means every class should have a single responsibility or single job or single purpose. Let’s take an example of the developing software, the task is divided into different members doing different things as front end designes to design, the tester does testing and back end developer takes care of back end development part then we can say that everyone has a single job or responsibility.
  • Open/Closed Principle: This principle states that “software entities (classes, modules, functions, etc.) should be open for extension, but closed for modification” which means we should be able to extend a class behavior, without modifying it. Let’s for example, suppose developer A needs to release an update for a library or framework and developer B wants some modification or add some feature on that then developer B is allowed to extend the exiting class created by developer A vt developer B is not supposed to modify the class directly.
  • Liskov’s Substitution Principle: The principle was introduced by Barbara Liskov in 1987 and according to this principle “Derived or child classes must be substitutable for their base or parent classes”. This principle ensures that any class that is the child of a parent class should be usable in place of its parent class should be sable in place of its parent without any unexpected behavior.
  • Intterface Segregation Principle: This principle is the first principle that applies to Interfaces instead of classes in SOLID and it is similar to the single responsibility principle. It states that “do not force any client to implement an interface which is irrelevant to them“. Here your main goal is to focus on avoiding fat interface and give preference to many small client-specific interfaces. You should prefer many client interfaces rather than one general interface and each interface should have a specific responsibility.
  • Dependency Inversion Principle: Before we discuss this topic keep in mind that Dependency Inversion and Dependency Injection both are different concepts. Most people get confused about it and consider both are the same. Now two key points are here to keep in mind about this principle.
  • High-level modules/classes should not depend on low-level modules/classes. Both should depend upon abstractions.
  • Abstractions should not depend upon details. Details should depend upon abstractions.

I chose this topic because, after learning a little more about design patterns, front end, back end, I was curious to learn about SOLID principles and, also I wanted to understand more about it and how it reinforces the need for design patterns in Software.

SOLID Principle in Programming: Understand With Real Life Examples – GeeksforGeeks

From the blog CS@Worcester – Gracia's Blog (Computer Science Major) by gkitenge and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Putting the ‘O’ in SOLID

We
covered the Open/Close principle in a recent lab, and it prompted a desire to
cover some of the SOLID principles. I have determined however, that the length
of this blog is short enough that I should dedicate it to a single principle at
a time, beginning with the aforementioned Open/Close principle.

              This particular object-oriented
principle was outlined by Bertrand Meyer and states:

“…entities should be open for extension, but closed for modification.”

              This of course, is a complex way
of expressing a simple guideline for software development; which is that new
functionality should be able to added without having to radically change existing
code. The operative word, extension, is illustrative. If your code was a home,
and you wanted to add more square-footage (read: functionality), you shouldn’t
need to knock all the walls, or the whole thing, down to add a bathroom.

              In the blog chosen, the author summarizes
a talk he gave about the very subject. In it, he provides an example of a program
he is developing for a company that calculates the total area of a set of rectangles.
As the customer requests more and more shapes be added to the calculator, the original
code changes drastically and gets longer and longer. This modification is opposed
to this principle. In opposition, creating a Shape class that contains many children
of different specific shapes – each with their own area function – with the
ability to add more, eliminates constant modification of the main class, and
allows for constant extensionability in the form of new shapes.

              To say simply that code should be
modular is unhelpful, as it is broad and the general definition of so many more
good coding practices. Our class and homework provide another perfect example.
Why should we have to constantly Override and rewrite portions of a superclass’
methods in each of its child classes to achieve proper functionality. Instead, in
making a Quack/Fly Behavior interface we have established a broad mold that
many new behaviors can be built off of; access to all of which is then granted
by the relationship to the single respective behavior interface.

              Therefore, the ability of code to be
extended with new functionalities, using a single reference – in this case the behaviors,
or shapes – instead of needing to rewrite or overwrite code is what is meant by
extension; while keeping the existing code from needing constant revisions, is being
closed for modification. Like the house example earlier, you should constantly be
building out, not renovating what exists already.

Sources:

A
simple example of the Open/Closed Principle

From the blog CS@Worcester – Press Here for Worms by wurmpress and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.