Book Image

Hands-On Design Patterns with C++ (Second Edition) - Second Edition

By : Fedor G. Pikus
5 (1)
Book Image

Hands-On Design Patterns with C++ (Second Edition) - Second Edition

5 (1)
By: Fedor G. Pikus

Overview of this book

C++ is a general-purpose programming language designed for efficiency, performance, and flexibility. 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. This book helps you focus on the design patterns that naturally adapt to your needs, and on the patterns that uniquely benefit from the features of C++. Armed with the knowledge of these patterns, you’ll spend less time searching for solutions to common problems and tackle challenges with the solutions developed from experience. You’ll also explore that design patterns are a concise and efficient way to communicate, as patterns are a familiar and recognizable solution to a specific problem and can convey a considerable amount of information with a single line of code. By the end of this book, you’ll have a deep understanding of how to use design patterns to write maintainable, robust, and reusable software.
Table of Contents (26 chapters)
1
Part 1: Getting Started with C++ Features and Concepts
5
Part 2: Common C++ Idioms
10
Part 3: C++ Design Patterns
18
Part 4: Advanced C++ Design Patterns

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 its own advantages and limitations.

A tool as powerful as the policy-based design is also easily misused or applied...