Objectfocused

Objectfocused is a software design philosophy that treats objects—the combination of data and the methods that operate on that data—as the central organizing units of a system. In an objectfocused approach, programming constructs and system behavior emerge from interactions among objects rather than from a set of isolated functions operating on shared state. Objects encapsulate their own state and expose behavior through interfaces, supporting information hiding and local reasoning about code.

Designing with objectfocus typically involves modeling domain concepts as objects, assigning responsibilities to individual objects, and composing them to build larger capabilities. Communication happens through method calls or message passing, with polymorphism used to vary behavior without changing call sites. Emphasis is placed on object lifecycles, clear interfaces, and predictable state transitions.

Objectfocused overlaps with object-oriented programming and object-oriented design, but practitioners use the term to highlight the object-centric nature of the design choice rather than language features alone. It applies across languages that support objects, such as Java, C#, Python, and JavaScript, and it is compatible with both inheritance-based and composition-based approaches.

Benefits include modularity, easier testing at the object boundary, and clearer domain modeling. Challenges include potential over-abstractness, increased indirection, and the risk of creating highly coupled object graphs. Good objectfocused practice often involves adherence to principles such as single responsibility, explicit interfaces, and, where appropriate, domain-driven design patterns. Anemic domain models are generally viewed as a contrast to this approach.

Origin of the term is informal; it appears in discussions contrasting object-centric design with function-centric or procedural styles. It is most commonly discussed in software development communities focusing on OO design and domain modeling.

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