Analysis

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Analysis

Pattern comparison

Reviewing 3 patterns.

Criteria
creationalAbstract FactoryView pattern
structuralFlyweightView pattern
behavioralVisitorView pattern
Basics
Categorycreationalstructuralbehavioral
SummaryProvide an interface for creating families of related objects without specifying their concrete classes.——
IntentProvide an interface for creating families of related objects without specifying their concrete classes.Use sharing to support large numbers of fine-grained objects efficiently by separating shared intrinsic state from per-object extrinsic state.Separate an algorithm from the object structure it operates on by moving behavior into visitor objects.
Decision factors
ProblemClient code needs to create families of related objects, but hardcoding concrete classes makes the code rigid and hard to swap.A system creates a large number of similar objects, but storing all of their state separately uses too much memory.You need to perform operations across a set of different object types without stuffing all the logic into the objects themselves.
Tradeoffs
  • Adds an extra abstraction layer.
  • Can overcomplicate simple object creation.
  • Makes family-wide swapping and consistency much easier.
  • Adds complexity because state must be split into shared and unshared parts
  • Can be harder to understand when many objects depend on an external context
  • Requires updating the visitor interface when new element types are added
  • Can be awkward if the object structure changes often
Practical fit
Languages
  • typescript
  • java
  • python
  • react
  • angular
  • csharp
  • dotnet
  • typescript
  • java
  • python
  • angular
  • react
  • react-native
  • csharp
  • dotnet
  • typescript
  • java
  • python
  • angular
  • react
  • react-native
  • csharp
  • dotnet
Platforms
  • applications
  • ui systems
  • integration layers
  • Web
  • Backend
  • Mobile
  • UI kits
  • Cross-platform systems
  • Web
  • Backend
  • Mobile
  • UI kits
  • Cross-platform systems
Integration notesAbstract Factory is especially useful when your app must produce matching sets of related objects for a theme, provider, platform, or pipeline.Flyweight is useful when thousands or millions of similar objects need to be represented efficiently, such as trees, glyphs, tiles, or UI tokens.Visitor is useful for AST processing, reporting, cart calculations, and exporting object structures to alternate formats.