Chapter 5

Domain classes are a vital part of any software project, and should be considered carefully during the software development process. This object oriented approach to client solutions is what generally makes larger projects more manageable, and often times what makes it even possible. It is always a good idea to break your program up into various classes that contain specific instance variables and functions relative to that class, but also implement some kind of inheritance hierarchy. There are two approaches to coding domain classes in one's program; one being reusing legacy code, or code that has already been established and tested by other developers, and the more labor intensive alternative, starting from scratch. Downloading and modifying previously written code seems the most simple, and safe option when trying to code these classes, but sometimes this proves to be difficult if such classes do not exemplify your specific needs. That is the job of the developer, to determine what the clients needs are and to best serve them with the tools at hand. This chapter has been a good refresher for me in terms of classes in a project, and their specific attributes. Another big concept posed in this chapter is the idea of unit testing, and maintaining an effective testing strategy for your code. I have the most experience in testing throughout the process, or in other words, testing each piece of code and function before moving on. Building on this, the chapter introduced the idea of test driven development, or gathering testing requirements before anything concrete is actually coded. The second implementation of testing seems to be the most rigorous and time consuming, but allows for the most success. Test suites, which are a collection of unit tests, play a pivotal role in the testing process. They allow for the individual testing of specific modules in a program to determine if everything is working as it should. This chapter has provided me with beneficial review in terms of classes and unit testing, as well as introduced me to new concepts and specific frameworks continuing to build my skills as a software developer.