Composition vs. Inheritance: Alternative to Protocols | Swift & iOS Basics

In software development, the choice of design principles significantly impacts the maintainability, scalability, and flexibility of a codebase. Protocols (or interfaces) are a powerful tool which gives developers the freedom to introduce, update, refactor, or replace individual components without risking to destabilize the system at large.

But protocols aren’t the only way to achieve that degree of flexibility. In addressing specific challenges, other mechanisms turn out to be a better choice. Inheritance is one of such alternatives. It is a key concept in object-oriented programming, and in this video, I’m delving into why alternatives might be necessary, and comparing the approaches.

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Chapters:
• 0:00 Intro
• 1:22 What Is Composition?
• 3:06 Why Alternatives Might Be Needed
• 4:25 Inheritance: An Alternative Approach
• 7:23 Benefits of Inheritance
• 10:02 Drawbacks of Inheritance
• 12:58 How to Choose
• 15:54 Summary

The Swift Bird, a Yakov Manshin production 🎞️

#composition #inheritance #softwaredevelopment

[wmblemania]

Good talk. Thanks.
Gotta say, I really don't miss inheritance in SwiftUI.

[govikris]

Apple should not have called it SWIFT protocol. SWIFT is a well-known protocol used for financial transaction across banking entities.