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There's a word that's used in API design that relates to the coupling between two entities. If one entity can vary without impacting the entity they are said to be _ _ _ _ _. For example given the declaration

class Point { public int X; public in Y; }

members X and Y could be said to exhibit this behaviour, as a change to X does not lead to any change in Y. The word I am looking for is not used that much in .NET circles but you'd be hard pressed to read a bokk on C++ STL without coming upon this word repeatedly.

So, after much searching I can't remember this word, can you?

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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Orthogonal? Independent?

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They are said to be Loosely-Coupled.

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