Design Class Diagrams
Strategy
"Strategy, State, Bridge (and to some degree Adapter) have similar solution structures.
They all share elements of the "handle/body" idiom. They differ in intent - that is,
they solve different problems." [Coplien, Advanced C++, p58]
Most of the GoF patterns exercise the two levels of indirection demonstrated here.
- Promote the "interface" of a method to an abstract base class or interface, and
bury the many possible implementation choices in concrete derived classes.
- Hide the implementation hierarchy behind a "wrapper" class that can perform
responsibilities like: choosing the best implementation, caching, state management,
remote access.
State
"Strategy is a bind-once pattern, whereas State is more dynamic." [Coplien, C++ Report,
Mar96, p88]
Bridge
The structure of State and Bridge are identical (except that Bridge admits
hierarchies of envelope classes, whereas State allows only one). The two
patterns use the same structure to solve different problems: State allows
an object's behavior to change along with its state, while Bridge's intent
is to decouple an abstraction from its implementation so that the two can
vary independently. [Coplien, C++ Report, May 95, p58]
Composite
Three GoF patterns rely on recursive composition: Composite, Decorator, and
Chain of Responsibility.
Flyweight
Flyweight is often combined with Composite to implement shared leaf nodes. [GoF, p206]
Flyweight shows how to make lots of little objects. Facade shows how to make a
single object represent an entire subsystem. [GoF, p138]
This diagram is perhaps a better example of Composite than the Composite diagram.
Interpreter
Interpreter is really an application of Composite.
Decorator
Decorator is designed to let you add responsibilities to objects without
subclassing. Composite's focus is not on embellishment but on representation.
These intents are distinct but complementary. Consequently, Composite and
Decorator are often used in concert. [GoF, p220]
Chain of Responsibility
Chain of Responsibility, Command, Mediator, and Observer, address how you
can decouple senders and receivers, but with different trade-offs. Chain
of Responsibility passes a sender request along a chain of potential receivers.
Facade
Facade defines a new interface, whereas Adapter uses an old interface.
Remember that Adapter makes two existing interfaces work together as opposed
to defining an entirely new one. [GoF, p219]
Adapter
Adapter makes things work after they're designed; Bridge makes them work
before they are. [GoF, p219]
Bridge is designed up-front to let the abstraction and the implementation
vary independently. Adapter is retrofitted to make unrelated classes work
together. [GoF, 216]
Proxy
Decorator and Proxy have different purposes but similar structures. Both
describe how to provide a level of indirection to another object, and the
implementations keep a reference to the object to which they forward
requests. [GoF, p220]
Adapter provides a different interface to its subject. Proxy provides the
same interface. Decorator provides an enhanced interface. [GoF. p216]
Command
Command and Memento act as magic tokens to be passed around and invoked
at a later time. In Command, the token represents a request; in Memento,
it represents the internal state of an object at a particular time.
Polymorphism is important to Command, but not to Memento because its
interface is so narrow that a memento can only be passed as a value.
[GoF, p346]
Memento
Command can use Memento to maintain the state required for an undo
operation. [GoF, 242]
Iterator
Memento is often used in conjunction with Iterator. An Iterator can
use a Memento to capture the state of an iteration. The Iterator
stores the Memento internally. [GoF, p271]
Mediator
Mediator is similar to Facade in that it abstracts functionality of
existing classes. Mediator abstracts/centralizes arbitrary
communications between colleague objects. It routinely "adds value",
and it is known/referenced by the colleague objects. In contrast,
Facade defines a simpler interface to a subsystem, it doesn't add
new functionality, and it is not known by the subsystem classes.
[GoF, p193]
Observer
Mediator and Observer are competing patterns. The difference
between them is that Observer distributes communication by
introducing "observer" and "subject" objects, whereas a Mediator
object encapsulates the communication between other objects.
We've found it easier to make reusable Observers and Subjects
than to make reusable Mediators. [GoF, p346]
On the other hand, Mediator can leverage Observer for dynamically
registering colleagues and communicating with them. [GoF, p282]
Template Method
Template Method uses inheritance to vary part of an algorithm.
Strategy uses delegation to vary the entire algorithm. [GoF, p330]
Visitor
The Visitor pattern is the classic technique for recovering lost
type information without resorting to dynamic casts.
[Vlissides, "Type Laundering", C++ Report, Feb 97, p48]
Factory Method
Factory Methods are usually called within Template Methods.
[GoF, p116]
Often, designs start out using Factory Method (less complicated,
more customizable, subclasses proliferate) and evolve toward
Abstract Factory, Prototype, or Builder (more flexible, more
complex) as the designer discovers where more flexibility is
needed. [GoF, p136]
Prototype
Factory Method: creation through inheritance. Prototype: creation
through delegation.
Abstract Factory
Abstract Factory classes are often implemented with Factory Methods,
but they can be implemented using Prototype. [GoF, p95]
Builder
Builder focuses on constructing a complex object step by step.
Abstract Factory emphasizes a family of product objects (either
simple or complex). Builder returns the product as a final step,
but as far as the Abstract Factory is concerned, the product gets
returned immediately. [GoF, p105]
Singleton
Singleton should be considered only if all three of the following criteria are satisfied:
- Ownership of the single instance cannot be reasonably assigned
- Lazy initialization is desirable
- Global access is not otherwise provided for