ptolemu's Journal: Encapsulation

One of the nicest things about object-oriented programming is it's ability to abstract, or encapsulate complex structures. If done properly, this method of programming can be rather powerful as it allows for a flexible interface that is both easily used and understood. It often makes reading and writing code a more pleasant activity as in abstracting code it makes for a more semantic-oriented structure, where objects are in themselves complex structures but whose complexity remains hidden elsewhere. This is the beauty of OOP, but it is also a great challenge to do properly. How much control over an object is necessary? How many roles should a single class encapsulate?