Designing for Information Hiding


Why Use Information Hiding?

There are several advantages to Information hiding.

• Easier to reuse code
• Easier to isolate bugs
• Easier construction - with small, well defined sections
• Easier abstraction (get closer to the problem)
• Allows isolation of areas likely to change
• Allows hiding of complex data or logic
• Allows hiding programming language level operations

What is Information Hiding?

Information Hiding is the idea that only information (data, access routines, etc) that need to be seen, are. If any type of information can be centralised and hidden away from the outside program, this is good, for the simple fact it simplifies the rest of the program.

The idea starts in the design stage of a program, and goes right through the construction phase and to the testing phase.


How do I Information Hide?

By dividing a program up into modules, you allow specfic information to be hidden away. This can be particular data, complex logic, or specific implementation details of a piece of software.

Each module is a collection of routines, that have a high level of commonality. The stronger the bond between routines in a module, the better the structuring of the program. Specifically each module should have a common goal, for instance, to modify a specfic data structure. Because nothing else modifies this data structure (by design) you have in effect hidden away the data structure.

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