Beyond Classes: Packages
Classes are currently the best way for programmers to achieve modularity. But modularity is a big topic, and it extends beyond classes. Over the past several decades, software development has advanced in large part by increasing the granularity of the aggregations that we have to work with. The first aggregation we had was the statement, which at the time seemed like a big step up from machine instructions. Then came subroutines, and later came classes.
Cross-Reference
For more on the distinction between classes and packages, see "Levels of Design" in Key Design Concepts.
It's evident that we could better support the goals of abstraction and encapsulation if we had good tools for aggregating groups of objects. Ada supported ...
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