Avoid interface bloat

Latest revision as of 03:05, 25 November 2010

Do not put implementation details such as common-code private functions into the public interface of a class. --Riel's Heuristic 2.5, Arthur Riel 1996

This heuristic refers to the idea that only those members which are supposed to be used from outside the class should be exposed in the public interface. If two or more methods of a class have some code in common, it is common to encapsulate it in its own method (a common-code private function). This method is an implementation detail, however, and should not be exposed publicly.

See Also

• Avoid interface pollution
• Interface segregation principle