Analysis
Compare patterns
Evaluate design patterns side by side across intent, tradeoffs, languages, and integration fit.
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Analysis
Pattern comparison
Reviewing 3 patterns.
| Criteria | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Basics | |||
| Category | structural | creational | behavioral |
| Summary | Convert the interface of a class or module into another interface clients expect. | — | — |
| Intent | Allow incompatible interfaces to work together without changing the consuming code. | Ensure a class has only one instance and provide a global access point to it. | Separate an algorithm from the object structure it operates on by moving behavior into visitor objects. |
| Decision factors | |||
| Problem | A client needs to talk to a legacy class or external service whose interface does not match the rest of the codebase. | A system needs exactly one shared instance of a class, and that instance must be globally accessible without allowing uncontrolled duplication. | You need to perform operations across a set of different object types without stuffing all the logic into the objects themselves. |
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| Practical fit | |||
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| Integration notes | Adapters are useful when exposing a stable boundary over a legacy API, vendor SDK, or payload format mismatch. | Singleton is useful for centralized services like configuration, logging, caching, and shared application state. | Visitor is useful for AST processing, reporting, cart calculations, and exporting object structures to alternate formats. |