class's contract in C++

In legal terms, a contract is a binding document that describes the responsibilities and expectations of the parties entering into the contract. Interfaces between classes can be modeled in the same way. Whenever an object invokes a method of an other object, this interaction should be viewed as a contract between the caller and the called method. This contract consists of the following conditions:

• Pre-conditions. The caller of the method needs to pass parameters that meet the requirements of the called method. Pre-conditions check if the caller of the method is keeping its side of the contract by passing the right parameters.
• Post-conditions. The called method needs to return results that meet the expectations of the caller. Post-conditions check if the called method is keeping its side of the contract, i.e. returning the results required by this interface.
• Consistency checks. In addition to the pre-conditions and post-conditions, all the objects involved in the transaction should be left in a consistent state.

 

  this section comes from:点击打开链接