Book Image

Hands-On Design Patterns with C++

By : Fedor G. Pikus
Book Image

Hands-On Design Patterns with C++

By: Fedor G. Pikus

Overview of this book

C++ is a general-purpose programming language designed with the goals of efficiency, performance, and flexibility in mind. Design patterns are commonly accepted solutions to well-recognized design problems. In essence, they are a library of reusable components, only for software architecture, and not for a concrete implementation. The focus of this book is on the design patterns that naturally lend themselves to the needs of a C++ programmer, and on the patterns that uniquely benefit from the features of C++, in particular, the generic programming. Armed with the knowledge of these patterns, you will spend less time searching for a solution to a common problem and be familiar with the solutions developed from experience, as well as their advantages and drawbacks. The other use of design patterns is as a concise and an efficient way to communicate. A pattern is a familiar and instantly recognizable solution to specific problem; through its use, sometimes with a single line of code, we can convey a considerable amount of information. The code conveys: "This is the problem we are facing, these are additional considerations that are most important in our case; hence, the following well-known solution was chosen." By the end of this book, you will have gained a comprehensive understanding of design patterns to create robust, reusable, and maintainable code.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)

Summary

In this chapter, we have studied, extensively, the applications of the Strategy pattern (also known as the policy pattern) to C++ generic programming. The combination of the two gives rise to one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of a C++ programmer—the policy-based design of classes. This approach provides great flexibility by allowing us to compose the behavior of the class from many building blocks, or policies, each of which is responsible for a particular aspect of the behavior.

We have learned different ways to implement policies—these can be templates, classes with template member functions, classes with static functions, and even classes with constant values. Just as varied are the ways that we can use policies through composition, inheritance, or direct access to static members. Policy parameters can be types or templates, each with their...