Introduction

This chapter gives you a quick introduction to the concepts of object-oriented programming (OOP) and covers some enhancements that have been introduced since Java 8. We will also try to cover a few good OOD practices wherever applicable and demonstrate them using specific code examples.

 

One can spend many hours reading articles and practical advice on OOD in books and on the internet. Doing this can be beneficial for some people. But, in our experience, the fastest way to get hold of OOD is to try its principles early in your own code. That is exactly the goal of this chapter—to give you a chance to see and use the OOD principles so that the formal definition makes sense immediately.

One of the main criteria of well-written code is the clarity of the intent. A well-motivated and clear design helps achieve this. The code is run by a computer, but it is maintained—read and modified—by humans. Keeping this in mind will assure the longevity of your code and perhaps even a few thanks...