Static Class Design

A static class is defined as a class that contains only static members (of course besides the instance members inherited from System.Object and possibly a private constructor). C++ languages do not provide built-in support for static classes.

Static classes are a compromise between pure object-oriented design and simplicity. They are commonly used to provide shortcuts to other operations (such as xtd::io::file), holders of extension methods, or functionality for which a full object-oriented wrapper is unwarranted (such as xtd::environment).

✔️ DO use static classes sparingly.

Static classes should be used only as supporting classes for the object-oriented core of the framework.

❌ DO NOT treat static classes as a miscellaneous bucket.

❌ DO NOT declare or override instance members in static classes.

✔️ DO declare static classes as abstract, and add a private instance constructor or add xtd keyword static_ because C++ language does not have built-in support for static classes.

namespace xtd {
  class environment static_ {
  public:
    static void exit(int exit_code) {
      ...
    }
    ...
  };
}

See also

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• Type Design Guidelines
• Design Guidelines
• Documentation