I know immutable objects are preferred to mutable objects for reasoning and maintenance. But in occasions making a class immutable have some costs, let me explain it with a simple example:
class Mutable
{
private int i;
public Mutable(int _i) { i = _i}
public void Print() // impure function
{
print(i);
i++; // logic inside
}
}
... caller
int i =1;
Immutable m = new Mutable(i);
while (true)
{
m.Print();
}
I call it mutable because its internal state changes and `Print` varies on each call.
Versus.
class Immutable
{
private int i;
public Mutable(int _i) { i = _i}
public int Print() // pure function
{
print(i);
return i;
}
}
... caller
int i =1;
while (true)
{
Immutable im = new Immutable(i);
i = im.Print();
i++; // logic outside
}
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My actual problem (**you may skip this example below**)
I have a class which draws a text in a box:
class TextDrawer
{
private string text;
private Rectangle box;
public TextDrawer(_text, _box) {...}
public void DrawTextInBox()
{
}
}
It is probable that the `Text` overflows from the box and part of it wasn't written. I should know the remaining unwritten part to draw it in a new box.(in fact I take an snapshot of the old box as a video frame and need to make a new frame for the remaining text to make a video of the text)
Now I have two options:
1- Make the `TextDrawer` mutable (its internal state is mutable) and `DrawTextInBox` a non-pure function and on each call it draws the remaining part of text in the box.
class TextDrawer
{
private string text;
private Rectangle box;
private string remaining;
public TextDrawer(_text, _box)
{
remaining = text = _text;
box = _box;
}
public void DrawTextInBox()
{
draw as you can from remaining
update remaining part;
}
}
2- Keep the `TextDrawer` immutable and `DrawTextInBox` a pure function which returns the remaining part, then the caller should keep track of the remaining and pass it again to the `TextDrawer` or instantiate a new `TextDrawer` by the remaining text until there is nothing to write.
class TextDrawer
{
private string text;
private Rectangle box;
public TextDrawer(_text, _box) { ... }
public string DrawTextInBox()
{
draw as you can from text;
return remaining part;
}
}
The second approach is immutable but actually shifts the responsibility of updating the remaining part outside of the class. The first approach is mutable (am i correct? because its internal state (the remaining part is mutable) but it encapsulates the logic and just need a call to `DrawTextInBox` to draw the remaining part.
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The logic of the above examples was simple but this logic could be more complex, then I don't know to extract this logic from a class in order to make it immutable or let it be mutable and have the logic inside?