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2 Organized and Disorganized Complexity

The document discusses different approaches to decomposing complex systems, including algorithmic decomposition which breaks a system into sequential steps, and object-oriented decomposition which breaks a system into key objects and their interactions. It argues that object-oriented decomposition is generally better for complex software systems as it helps organize complexity and reduces risks compared to algorithmic decomposition alone.

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Durgavajjala Karthik
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3K views

2 Organized and Disorganized Complexity

The document discusses different approaches to decomposing complex systems, including algorithmic decomposition which breaks a system into sequential steps, and object-oriented decomposition which breaks a system into key objects and their interactions. It argues that object-oriented decomposition is generally better for complex software systems as it helps organize complexity and reduces risks compared to algorithmic decomposition alone.

Uploaded by

Durgavajjala Karthik
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Organized and Disorganized

Complexity
The Canonical Form of a Complex
System
• The discovery of common abstractions and mechanisms
greatly facilitates our understanding of complex systems.

• EX: with just a few minutes of orientation, an experienced pilot can


step into a multiengine jet aircraft he or she has never flown before
and safely fly the vehicle.
Having recognized the properties common to all such aircraft,
such as the functioning of the rudder, ailerons, and throttle, the
pilot primarily needs to learn what properties are unique to that
particular aircraft. If the pilot already knows how to fly a given
aircraft, it is far easier to know how to fly a similar one.
The Canonical Form of a Complex
System
The Role of Decomposition

• As Dijkstra suggests, “The technique of mastering complexity has


been known since ancient times: divide et impera (divide and rule)"
• When designing a complex software system, it is essential to
decompose it into smaller and smaller parts, each of which we may
then refine independently.

1. Algorithmic Decomposition
2. Object-Oriented Decomposition
3. Algorithmic versus Object-Oriented Decomposition
Algorithmic Decomposition
Algorithmic Decomposition
• Most of us have been formally trained in the
dogma of top down structured design, and so
we approach decomposition as a simple
matter of algorithmic decomposition
Object-Oriented Decomposition

• we have decomposed the system according to


the key abstractions in the problem domain.
Object-Oriented Decomposition
Algorithmic versus Object-Oriented
Decomposition
• Which is the right way to decompose a complex system - by algorithms or
by objects?
Both views are important.
• The algorithmic view highlights the ordering of events, and the object-
oriented view emphasizes the agents that either cause action or are the
subjects upon which these operations act.
• The object-oriented view first because this approach is better at helping
us organize the inherent complexity of software systems, just as it helped
us to describe the organized complexity of complex systems.
• Object oriented decomposition has a number of highly significant
advantages over algorithmic decomposition.
• Object-oriented decomposition greatly reduces the risk of building
complex software systems

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