It depends The right answer is it depends. If you are writing audio/video data for instance, if you crowbar it into a human readable format, it won’t be very readable! And word documents are the classic example where people have wished they were human readable, so more flexible, and by moving to XML MS are … Read more
Abstraction has to do with separating interface from implementation. (We don’t care what it is, we care that it works a certain way.) Encapsulation has to do with disallowing access to or knowledge of internal structures of an implementation. (We don’t care or need to see how it works, only that it does.) Some people … Read more
As other answers have pointed out, Haskell tends to use different vocabulary. However, I don’t think they’ve explained the reason for the difference very well. In a language like Java, functions are not “first class citizens”; it’s true that anonymous functions are available in the latest versions, but this style of interface (Collection, Indexable, Interable, … Read more
Abstraction is a process where you show only “relevant” data and “hide” unnecessary details of an object from the user. Consider your mobile phone, you just need to know what buttons are to be pressed to send a message or make a call, What happens when you press a button, how your messages are sent, … Read more
Encapsulation: hiding data using getters and setters etc. Abstraction: hiding implementation using abstract classes and interfaces etc.
Maybe this is not directly answering your question, but in .NET 4.5+, I prefer to follow these rules when designing public or protected APIs: do return IEnumerable<T>, if only enumeration is available; do return IReadOnlyCollection<T> if both enumeration and items count are available; do return IReadOnlyList<T>, if enumeration, items count and indexed access are available; … Read more
How little is too little? When you keep working with “low level” elements on a routine basis and you constantly feel like you don’;t want to be doing this. Abstract ’em away. So when is it too much? When you can’t make bits and pieces of some code parts on a regular basis and have … Read more
In algebra, as in everyday concept formation, abstractions are formed by grouping things by some essential characteristics and omitting their specific other characteristics. The abstraction is unified under a single symbol or word denoting the similarities. We say that we abstract over the differences, but this really means we’re integrating by the similarities. For example, … Read more
Here’s a meatspace example: Automobiles have abstractions for drivers. In its purest form, there’s a steering wheel, accelerator and brake. This abstraction hides a lot of detail about what’s under the hood: engine, cams, timing belt, spark plugs, radiator, etc. The neat thing about this abstraction is that we can replace parts of the implementation … Read more
Interfaces are excellent when you want to create something like it: using System; namespace MyInterfaceExample { public interface IMyLogInterface { //I want to have a specific method that I’ll use in MyLogClass void WriteLog(); } public class MyClass : IMyLogInterface { public void WriteLog() { Console.Write(“MyClass was Logged”); } } public class MyOtherClass : IMyLogInterface … Read more