Question

The design pattern the first letter in this acronym stands for is the Single Responsibility Principle. Here is a quote:

the single responsibility principle
states that every object should have a
single responsibility, and that
responsibility should be entirely
encapsulated by the class.

That’s simple and clear until we start to code. Suppose we have a class with a well defined single responsibility. To serialize the class instances we need to add special atrributes to that class. So now the class has another responsibility. Doesn’t that violate the SRP?

Let’s see another example – an interface implementation. When we implement an interface we simply add other responsibilities, say disposing of its resources or comparing its instances or whatever.

So my question. Is it possible to strictly keep to SRP? How can it be done?

Answer 1

As you will one day discover, none of the most known principles in software development can be 100% followed.

Programming is often about making compromises – abstract pureness vs. code size vs. speed vs.efficiency.

You just need to learn to find the right balance: not let your application fall into abyss of chaos but not tie yourself hands with multitude of abstraction layers.