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Object oriented design patterns in the Linux kernel (2011)

Despite the fact that the Linux Kernel is mostly written in C, it makes broad use of some techniques from the field of object-oriented programming. Developers wanting to use these object-oriented techniques receive little support or guidance from the language and so are left to fend for themselves. As is often the case, this is a double-edged sword. The developer has enough flexibility to do really cool things, and equally the flexibility to do really stupid things, and it isn't always clear at first glance which is which, or more accurately: where on the spectrum a particular approach sits. Subscribers can click below for part 1 of guest author Neil Brown's look from this week's Kernel page.

Rather than providing a brief introduction to the object-oriented style, tempting though that is, we will assume the reader has a basic knowledge of objects, classes, methods, inheritance, and similar terms. Though the fit may not be perfect - depending on what your exact understanding of mixin is - the idea of bringing in a collection of functionality without using strict hierarchical inheritance is very close to the purpose of quota_format_ops and export_operations. In the second part of our examination of object oriented patterns we will explore the various ways that data inheritance is achieved in the Linux kernel and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each approach so as to see where each is most appropriate.

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