Requesting feedback on my OO design
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Published on 2014-08-19T11:41:49Z
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I'm working on an application that creates music by itself. I'm seeking feedback for my OO design so far. This question will focus on one part of the program.
The application produces Tune
objects, that are the final musical products. Tune
is an abstract class with an abstract method play
. It has two subclasses: SimpleTune
and StructuredTune
.
SimpleTune
owns a Melody
and a Progression
(chord sequence). It's play
implementation plays these two objects simultaneously. StructuredTune
owns two Tune
instances. It's own play
plays the two Tune
s one after the other according to a pattern (currently only ABAB
).
Melody
is an abstract class with an abstract play
method. It has two subclasses: SimpleMelody
and StructuredMelody
.
SimpleMelody
is composed of an array of notes. Invoking play
on it plays these notes one after the other. StructuredMelody
is composed of an array of Melody
objects. Invoking play
on it plays these Melody
ies one after the other.
I think you're starting to see the pattern. Progression
is also an abstract class with a play
method and two subclasses: SimpleProgression
and StructuredProgression
, each composed differently and played differently.
SimpleProgression
owns an array of chords and play
s them sequentially. StructuredProgression
owns an array of Progression
s and it's play
implementation plays them sequentially.
Every class has a corresponding Generator
class. Tune
, Melody
and Progression
are matched with corresponding abstract TuneGenerator
, MelodyGenerator
and ProgressionGenerator
classes, each with an abstract generate
method. For example MelodyGenerator
defines an abstract Melody generate
method.
Each of the generators has two subclasses, Simple
and Structured
. So for example MelodyGenerator
has a subclasses SimpleMelodyGenerator
, with an implementation of generate
that returns a SimpleMelody
.
(It's important to note that the generate
methods encapsulate complex algorithms. They are more than mere factory method. For example SimpleProgressionGenerator.generate()
implements an algorithm to compose a series of Chord
objects, which are used to instantiate the returned SimpleProgression
).
Every Structured
generator uses another generator internally. It is a Simple
generator be default, but in special cases may be a Structured
generator.
Parts of this design are meant to allow the end-user through the GUI to choose what kind of music is to be created. For example the user can choose between a "simple tune" (SimpleTuneGenerator
) and a "full tune" (StructuredTuneGenerator
). Other parts of the system aren't subject to direct user-control.
What do you think of this design from an OOD perspective? What potential problems do you see with this design? Please share with me your criticism, I'm here to learn.
Apart from this, a more specific question: the "every class has a corresponding Generator class" part feels very wrong. However I'm not sure how I could design this differently and achieve the same flexibility. Any ideas?
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