In this chapter, we saw that the ways in which modules and packages are used tend to follow standard patterns. We examined the divide-and-conquer pattern, which is the process of breaking a problem down into smaller parts, and saw how this technique both helps to structure your programs and clarify your thinking about the problem you are trying to solve.
We next looked at the abstraction pattern, which is the process of hiding complexity by separating what you want to do from how to do it. We then examined the notion of encapsulation, which is where you store data about something but hide the details of how that data is represented from the rest of the system, and use getter and setter functions to provide access to that data.
We then turned to the concept of wrappers, and saw how wrappers can be used to simplify the interface to a complex or confusing API, to convert data formats, to implement cross-language compatibility, and to add testing and error-checking code to an existing...