Tell Less, Say More: The Power of Implicitness

• Authors: Bertrand Meyer
• Venue: Computer
• Year: 1998

Implicitness is a very practical feature of OO development, as distinctive as anything that is routinely considered part of the definition. It is the constant refusal to say more than what we strictly need to say. The double refusal (refusal to close, refusal to assert completeness) requires some intellectual audacity, but yields a productive development process. In the end, what resolves the contradiction is the release of the software. The release process (the process of closing what was until now open) is the process of equating each type with the Cartesian product of its properties. So when everything has been said, the objects are indeed what they have. But only at the end. Until then, you always leave room for more properties. Everything is open until officially closed; and by telling less now you retain the possibility of saying more later