- Published on
What are design patterns?
- Authors
- Name
- Omama Zainab
- @omamazainab_
Understanding Design Patterns in Software Design
Design patterns serve as repeatable solutions to common problems encountered in software design. By applying these patterns, developers can leverage proven techniques, promote reusability, and articulate complex solutions with elegance and precision.
Benefits of Design Patterns
- Proven Solutions: They have been tried and tested, ensuring reliability.
- Reusability: Once a pattern is established, it can be reused across different projects, saving time and effort.
- Elegant Expression: Patterns provide a means to express intricate solutions in a clear and manageable way.
Proto-Patterns
Proto-patterns are emerging patterns that have not yet undergone the rigorous testing required to confirm their effectiveness. Often these are bespoke solutions to specific problems that a developer believes could have broader applicability.
Anti-Patterns
Anti-patterns are essentially the opposite of best practices. They are commonly occurring solutions that are counterproductive and inefficient. Examples in JavaScript include:
- Global Namespace Pollution: Defining too many variables globally can lead to conflicts and maintenance issues.
- Improper setTimeout() Usage: Using strings instead of functions with
setTimeout()invokeseval()internally, which can lead to security and performance implications.
Categories of Design Patterns
The foundational 23 Gang of Four (GoF) patterns form the bedrock upon which other patterns are built. These are divided into three main categories:
Creational Patterns
These patterns focus on the object creation process, tailoring it to the specific needs of the situation at hand.
Behavioral Patterns
Behavioral patterns enhance communication between disparate parts of a system, making the interactions more efficient and organized.
Structural Patterns
Focusing on object composition, structural patterns ease the design process by identifying straightforward ways to establish relationships between entities. They aim to ensure system robustness to changes in individual components.