Refinable Function : An Object-oriented Approach to Procedure Modularity

Abstract: Modularity is the fundamental aspect of modern software engineering, however many advanced modularity techniques requires prospective technologies as part of development and operation process. In this paper, we present Refinable Function, an object-oriented approach to advanced language-based, symmetric modularity technique for the procedure. We conceptually compare Refinable Function to existing technique to substantiate benefits of modularity can be implemented in on well-established object-oriented language without compiler support. We introduce concepts of inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism of function for bringing object-orientation to procedure modularity and describe the design and implementation of Refinable Function in JavaScript to validate our approach to practical web application development. We introduce the practical aspect of Refinable Function implementation by discussing concerns of applying modularity on asynchronous processing. We tested and implemented Refinable Function to substantiate its relevance to web application development and product line implementation.