[ratww]

I've found that separating around "abstraction levels", to use Clean Code lingo, really helps for defining good boundaries. This is really super-emphasised in Clean Code, but I find this the most important concept in the book.

Examples:

Are you writing to disk? Printing to the screen? Saving to the database? This is a different "abstraction level" than your data processing, those things should be separated by a boundary.

Are you doing hardcore math to procedurally generate a terrain? It shouldn't be on the same layer you push the triangles to the screen.

It's also about isolation: you want to control the Framebuffers in your 3D renderer? Don't let the Framebuffer class with OpenGL calls ever leak outside the renderer, even though there's encapsulation. Just use a data class to communicate between renderer/non-renderer code.

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However, the part that is not really discussed on these books is that we should be vigilant not to "over-abstract". Sometimes you have a certain level of abstraction distributed over two or more classes, only to mirror some kind of external structure or mental mode, but in reality you want the code for those things to be together in the same class/method.

One example I run across a lot in 3D renderers is wrapping internal 3D library concepts like "vertex buffer", "context" and "framebuffer" in separate abstract objects, even when they really don't need to be abstract.

For example: "Open GL renderer" will only ever be able to call "OpenGL vertex buffer", "OpenGL context" and "OpenGL framebuffer", while Vulkan will only call the Vulkan equivalents. This means you don't need a "framebuffer" abstraction, you can have it on the same layer as the renderer. You might need a data-only, non-abstract "framebuffer" class to control it from the outside, though.

[pydry]

>However, the part that is not really discussed on these books is that we should be vigilant not to "over-abstract".

To be fair, I've never really seen any process/paradigm address this. I've mostly done it based upon gut feel - sometimes abstractions seem like too much of an imposition. Other times it feels critical.

DDD just says "do way too much. all the time".

I imagine one day there will be an abstraction calculus but software engineering aint there yet.

[dm3]

This is a bit different. You are talking about a domain where the developer is usually the domain expert. You know very well what "procedurally generated terrain", "3D renderer", "database", "screen" and "framebuffer" are. Even if you don't - good and unambiguous definitions are usually just a couple internet searches away.

Now imagine you need to encode behaviours for a system where domain experts use terms and jargon you've never heard before. Even worse, users of the same system coming from different departments use the same terms to mean different things. How do you draw the boundaries there? That's what the GP finds disappointing - there is no single guide or reliable process to jump into a new domain and get the boundaries right.