Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

1953– · American software engineer

Topics: software design

• Responsibility-driven design specifies object behavior before object structure and other implementation considerations are determined. We have found that it minimizes the rework required for major design changes.

  — Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

• The goal of responsibility-driven design is to improve encapsulation. It does so by viewing a program in terms of the client/server model.

  — Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

• A subsystem is a set of classes (and possibly other subsystems) collaborating to fulfill a set of responsibilities. Although subsystems do not exist as the software executes, they are useful conceptual entities.

  — Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

• Frameworks are skeletal structures of programs that must be fleshed out to build a complete application. For example, a windowing system or a simulation system can both be viewed as frameworks fleshed out by a windowed application or a simulation, respectively.

  — Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

• Frameworks are white boxes to those that make use of them. Application developers must be able to quickly understand the structure of a framework, and how to write code that will fit into the framework. Frameworks are reusable designs as well as reusable code.

  — Rebecca Wirfs-Brock