Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design

7.2. A Class Design Boilerplate

How, then, does one approach class design? We prefer a “boilerplate” approach, which makes class designs consistent and robust. A class design boilerplate is a framework that you fill in according to your object's behaviors and requirements. The following generic boilerplate helps organize the important concepts behind class design.

Listing 7.1. Class design boilerplate

#ifndef Class_nameH #define Class_nameH class Class_name { private: // private data and functions here . . . void copy(const Class_name &); // copy object void free(); // free resources public: // Constructors and destructor Class_name(); // default constructor Class_name(const Class_name & obj) { // copy constructor copy(obj); // copy object } ...