Beginning C# 2008 Objects: From Concept to Code

2.1. Simplification Through Abstraction

Take a moment to look around the room in which you're reading this book. At first, you may think that there really aren't that many things to observe: some furniture, light fixtures, perhaps some plants, artwork, even some other people or pets. Maybe there is a window to gaze out of that opens up the outside world to observation.

Now look again: for each thing that you see, there are a myriad of details to observe: its size, its color, its intended purpose, the components from which it's assembled (the legs on a table, the light bulbs in a lamp), and so on. In addition, each one of these components in turn has details associated with it: the type of material used to make the legs of the table (wood or ...