CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2007/wiki2 5 kq

Topic

CRC cards. Hundreds of Web pages cover CRC cards. Which explain them best? Which explain them in the context of specific languages, e.g., Ruby and Java? Which exercises can be used to teach them best, (i) interactively over the Web, (ii) to a class of students, via in-class exercises, (iii) for self-study?

Definition

A Class Responsibility Collaborator (CRC) model (Beck & Cunningham 1989; Wilkinson 1995; Ambler 1995) is a collection of standard index cards that have been divided into three sections, as depicted in Figure 1. A class represents a collection of similar objects, a responsibility is something that a class knows or does, and a collaborator is another class that a class interacts with to fulfill its responsibilities.

Advantages of CRC Card

Using a small card keeps the complexity of the design at a minimum. It focuses the designer on the essentials of the class and prevents him from getting into its details and inner workings at a time when such detail is probably counter-productive. It also forces the designer to refrain from giving the class too many responsibilities. Because the cards are portable, they can easily be laid out on a table and re-arranged while discussing a design with other people.

A common method to determine what cards should be created is to read a specification for the program being designed and consider if each noun should be a class and if each verb should be a responsibility of the noun or class to which it belongs. Naturally, the existence of a noun or verb does not require a class or responsibility in the program, but it is considered a good starting point.

Reference

• Class Responsibility Collaboration Card
• Class Responsibility Collaborator (CRC) Models
• CRC Cards Tutorial