第 6 章 通用模块更深入

Chapter 6 General-Purpose Modules are Deeper

One of the most common decisions that you will face when designing a new module is whether to implement it in a general-purpose or special-purpose fashion. Some might argue that you should take a general-purpose approach, in which you implement a mechanism that can be used to address a broad range of problems, not just the ones that are important today. In this case, the new mechanism may find unanticipated uses in the future, thereby saving time. The general-purpose approach seems consistent with the investment mindset discussed in Chapter 3, where you spend a bit more time up front to save time later on.

设计新模块时，您将面临的最普遍的决定之一就是是以通用还是专用方式实现它。有人可能会争辩说，您应该采用通用方法，在这种方法中，您将实现一种可用于解决广泛问题的机制，而不仅是当今重要的问题。在这种情况下，新机制可能会在将来发现意外用途，从而节省时间。通用方法似乎与第 3 章中讨论的投资思路一致，在这里您花了更多时间在前面，以节省以后的时间。

On the other hand, we know that it’s hard to predict the future needs of a software system, so a general-purpose solution might include facilities that are never actually needed. Furthermore, if you implement something that is too general-purpose, it might not do a good job of solving the particular problem you have today. As a result, some might argue that it’s better to focus on today’s needs, building just what you know you need, and specializing it for the way you plan to use it today. If you take the special-purpose approach and discover additional uses later, you can always refactor it to make it general-purpose. The special-purpose approach seems consistent with an incremental approach to software development.

另一方面，我们知道很难预测软件系统的未来需求，因此通用解决方案可能包含从未真正需要的功能。此外，如果您实现的东西过于通用，那么可能无法很好地解决您今天遇到的特定问题。结果，有些人可能会争辩说，最好只关注当今的需求，构建您所知道的需求，并针对您今天打算使用的方式进行专门化处理。如果您采用特殊用途的方法并在以后发现更多用途，则始终可以对其进行重构以使其通用。专用方法似乎与软件开发的增量方法一致。