Design patterns

In software engineering, a design pattern is a recommended solution to a software design problem. Design patterns generally describe how to structure our code to solve common design problems using best practices. It is important to note that a design pattern is a high-level solution; it doesn't focus on implementation details such as algorithms and data structures [GOF95, page 13], [j.mp/srcmdp]. It is up to us, as software engineers, to decide which algorithm and data structure is optimal to use for the problem we are trying to solve.

The most important part of a design pattern is probably its name. The benefit of naming all patterns is that we have, on our hands, a common vocabulary to communicate [GOF95, page 13]. Thus, if you send some code for review and your peer reviewer gives feedback mentioning "I think that you can use a Strategy here instead of ...", even if you don't know or remember what a strategy is, you can immediately look it up.

As programming languages evolve, some design patterns such as Singleton become obsolete or even antipatterns [j.mp/jalfdp], others are built in the programming language (iterator), and new patterns are born (Borg/Monostate [j.mp/amdpp], [j.mp/wikidpc]).