Modular programming

Modular programming is a <a href="/facts/Software_design/61rGr5Ej">software design</a> technique that emphasizes separating the functionality of a <a href="/facts/Computer_program/e38jH9N9">program</a> into independent, interchangeable modules, such that each contains everything necessary to execute only one aspect or <a href="/facts/Separation_of_concerns/Tx8jawNT">"concern"</a> of the desired functionality.
A module <a href="/facts/Interface_(computing)/zdfp8unT">interface</a> expresses the elements that are provided and required by the module. The elements defined in the interface are detectable by other modules. The <a href="/facts/Implementation/IH1KXgP3">implementation</a> contains the working code that corresponds to the elements declared in the interface. Modular programming is closely related to <a href="/facts/Structured_programming/zA8b8dP1">structured programming</a> and <a href="/facts/Object-oriented_programming/TxNMEcao">object-oriented programming</a>, all having the same goal of facilitating construction of large software programs and systems by <a href="/facts/Decomposition_(computer_science)/oAQ7l0VA">decomposition</a> into smaller pieces, and all originating around the 1960s. While the historical usage of these terms has been inconsistent, "modular programming" now refers to the high-level decomposition of the code of an entire program into pieces: structured programming to the low-level code use of structured <a href="/facts/Control_flow/2XTDfErC">control flow</a>, and object-oriented programming to the data use of <a href="/facts/Object_(computer_science)/eX99dtAw">objects</a>, a kind of <a href="/facts/Data_structure/yNsNvL1I">data structure</a>.
In object-oriented programming, the use of interfaces as an architectural pattern to construct modules is known as <a href="/facts/Interface-based_programming/CoPuqzXw">interface-based programming</a>.

Modular programming open-in-new

Modular programming