ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Forwarding (object-oriented programming)

Forwarding is like asking someone else to do something for you. Imagine that you want to give a gift to your friend, but you don't know their address. You can ask someone else who knows the address to help you, and that person will send the gift to your friend on your behalf.

In object-oriented programming, forwarding works in a similar way. When you create an object, you can make it forward messages to another object instead of processing them itself. This is useful when you have a complex object that needs to delegate tasks to other objects without knowing too much about how they work.

For example, let's say you have a car object that needs to get the current speed of the engine. Instead of implementing this functionality in the car object itself, you can make it forward the request to the engine object. The engine object will then calculate the speed and return it to the car object, which will use the value however it needs to. This way, you can keep the car object simple and focused on its main job - driving - while the engine object takes care of the details.

Forwarding can also be used to create "proxy" objects that behave like other objects but add extra functionality. For example, you could create a logging proxy that forwards messages to the original object but also logs each message to a file or database. This way, you can monitor what's going on in your program without affecting its behavior.

Overall, forwarding is a powerful technique that allows objects to work together in a flexible and modular way. By delegating tasks to other objects, you can create complex systems that are easy to understand and maintain.