信息泄漏的一个常见原因是我称为时间分解的设计风格。在时间分解中，系统的结构对应于操作将发生的时间顺序。考虑一个应用程序，该应用程序以特定格式读取文件，修改文件内容，然后再次将文件写出。通过时间分解，该应用程序可以分为三类：一类用于读取文件，另一类用于执行修改，第三类用于写出新版本。文件读取和文件写入步骤都具有有关文件格式的知识，这会导致信息泄漏。解决方案是将用于读写文件的核心机制结合到一个类中。该类将在应用程序的读取和写入阶段使用。很容易陷入时间分解的陷阱，因为在编写代码时通常会想到必须执行操作的顺序。但是，大多数设计决策会在应用程序的整个生命周期中的多个不同时刻表现出来。结果，时间分解常常导致信息泄漏。
顺序通常很重要，因此它将反映在应用程序中的某个位置。但是，除非该结构与信息隐藏保持一致（也许不同阶段使用完全不同的信息），否则不应将其反映在模块结构中。在设计模块时，应专注于执行每个任务所需的知识，而不是任务发生的顺序。
在时间分解中，执行顺序反映在代码结构中：在不同时间发生的操作在不同的方法或类中。如果在执行的不同点使用相同的知识，则会在多个位置对其进行编码，从而导致信息泄漏。
One common cause of information leakage is a design style I call temporal decomposition. In temporal decomposition, the structure of a system corresponds to the time order in which operations will occur. Consider an application that reads a file in a particular format, modifies the contents of the file, and then writes the file out again. With temporal decomposition, this application might be broken into three classes: one to read the file, another to perform the modifications, and a third to write out the new version. Both the file reading and file writing steps have knowledge about the file format, which results in information leakage. The solution is to combine the core mechanisms for reading and writing files into a single class. This class will get used during both the reading and writing phases of the application. It’s easy to fall into the trap of temporal decomposition, because the order in which operations must occur is often on your mind when you code. However, most design decisions manifest themselves at several different times over the life of the application; as a result, temporal decomposition often results in information leakage.
Order usually does matter, so it will be reflected somewhere in the application. However, it shouldn’t be reflected in the module structure unless that structure is consistent with information hiding (perhaps the different stages use totally different information). When designing modules, focus on the knowledge that’s needed to perform each task, not the order in which tasks occur.
In temporal decomposition, execution order is reflected in the code structure: operations that happen at different times are in different methods or classes. If the same knowledge is used at different points in execution, it gets encoded in multiple places, resulting in information leakage.