Summary

Section 6.1 Introduction

• Experience has shown that the best way to develop and maintain a large program is to construct it from small, simple pieces, or modules. This technique is called divide and conquer (p. 198).

Section 6.2 Program Modules in Java

• Methods are declared within classes. Classes are typically grouped into packages so they can be imported and reused.

• Methods allow you to modularize a program by separating its tasks into self-contained units. The statements in a method are written only once and hidden from other methods.

• Using existing methods as building blocks to create new programs is a form of software reusability (p. 199) that allows you to avoid repeating code within a program.