posted 23 years ago
When designing a class, how do I know the following?
(1)What fields do I need?
Are there any systematic (scientific, disciplined) ways to figure that out as opposed to the intuitive ways used by those experienced programmers?
(2)Constructors are usually for initializing the fields in a class, but I've seen constructors do far more complicated things than that, such as opening up a database, performing animation, etc. How do I know what the constructors are supposed to do when designing my class?
(3)What parameters do I need for a method? Do I decide on this first before coding the method? Or do I code the method first and then come back to fill in the method signature?
Are there any books that deal with these topics?
I have been bugged by these questions for a long time. I appreciate if you programming gurus can share with us juniors how you overcome these hurdles.
Please do not cross post.