Students' Guide to Program Design

Module design considerations

8.4 Module coupling

When designing

a

solution algorithm,

a

programmer should look not

only

at

the cohesion

of

the modules, but also the flow

of

information

between modules.

The programmer should aim towards module independence. That

is,

towards modules which have fewer and simpler connections with

other modules.

The

fewer these connections, then

the

easier

it is to

maintain

one

module without reference

to

other modules. These

connections are called

interfaces

or

couples.

Coupling

is a

measure

of the

extent

of

information interchange

between modules. Tight coupling implies large dependence

on the

structure

of

on