Sketech #1 Design Patterns: The Blueprint for Clean Code

Master Design Patterns with Catchy Visuals – Creational, Structural & Behavioral Insights ⚡

Hi there!

Welcome to the first issue of Sketᵉch, Visual Thinking for Software Engineers! Let's dive into some fresh insights and visuals for your engineering toolkit.

Visual Breakdown: What’s Covered

• Creational Design Patterns: Precision in object instantiation.

• Structural Design Patterns: Solid frameworks for scalability.

• Behavioral Design Patterns: Efficient communication between objects.

🎁 Gift: Every post comes with an AI-powered podcast—totally on point.

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🔊 Let’s talk Creational Design Patterns - Listen to Sketᵉch Podcast

Is your code a mess every time you need to create new objects? Here are 5 elegant solutions to simplify object creation while boosting your code's maintainability and scalability:

1. Singleton: Ensures a class has only one instance, providing a global access point. Commonly used in logging, configuration settings, and thread pools.

⚡️ Reduces memory footprint, ensures control over resource access.

⚠️ Can be a bit trickier to test and manage in concurrent scenarios.

CoffeeMachine machine = CoffeeMachine.getInstance();

2. Prototype: Used to create new objects by copying existing ones, minimizing the overhead of creating complex objects. Useful for objects that are expensive to create or configure.

⚡️ Simplifies object creation, reduces the need for subclasses.

⚠️ In some cases, cloning might require extra attention to handle deep copies.

Recipe cloneRecipe = originalRecipe.clone();

3. Abstract Factory: Provides an interface for creating families of related or dependent objects without specifying their concrete classes. Ideal for systems that require flexibility in the creation process.

⚡️ Ensures consistency among products, easy to swap out concrete implementations.

⚠️ May require a bit more effort to implement and maintain.

Drink drink = factory.createDrink();

4. Factory Method: Defines an interface for creating an object but allows subclasses to decide which class to instantiate. Great for creating objects where the exact class of the object may vary.

⚡️ Promotes loose coupling, adds flexibility by centralizing object creation.

⚠️ The structure can become more complex with many subclasses, but this also provides flexibility.

Coffee coffee = espressoButton.createCoffee();

5. Builder: Allows step-by-step construction of complex objects, focusing on flexibility and readability. Ideal for creating objects with many optional parameters or configurations.

⚡️ Improves code readability and object immutability, separates construction logic.

⚠️ May involve more classes to handle different configurations, but this keeps the code organized.

builder.setMilk().setCaramel().setIce().setWhippedCream(); 
Coffee coffee = builder.build();

With these patterns, writing clean and scalable code can become part of your routine, simplifying development and improving software quality.

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🔊 Catch up on Structural Design Patterns! - Listen to Sketᵉch Podcast

If small changes are causing big problems in your code, it's time to rethink how you're structuring your software. Let's take a look at the sketch!

1. Adapter: Allows collaboration between incompatible interfaces.

• Needed when integrating existing components that can't be modified to match a required interface, facilitating data format translations without altering the original code.

json_data = Adapter(xml_data).convert_to_json() — Transforms XML data to JSON format for compatibility.

2. Decorator: Adds additional behavior to objects by encapsulating them in decorator classes.

• Extends functionalities flexibly without modifying the original class structure.

  loan = PriorityLoan(StandardLoan(book)).add_feature("Extended Return")
  #adds features like "Extended Return" to standard loans without altering the base class code.

3.  Proxy: Controls access to an object, performing actions before or after requests to the real object.

• Implements access controls, optimizes performance through lazy loading, or manages shared resources.

  download = ProxyBook(user).access("Sketech"); 
  #Manages download access permissions based on the user.

4. Facade: Simplifies interaction with complex systems by offering a unified and simpler interface.

• Reduces complexity when interacting with complicated subsystems or multiple interfaces.

  LibFacade().reserve("b", user); 
  #Simplifies the book reservation process in a complex library system.

5. Bridge: Decouples abstraction from implementation so that both can vary independently.

• Combines different abstractions and implementations without creating a multitude of classes.

  ebook = Format(Digital()).Book("Sketech");  
  #Decouples the representation of a book from its specific format.

6. Composite: Allows individual objects and composites to be treated uniformly through a tree structure.

• Models hierarchical structures like menus, documents, and file systems.

  section.add(Book("Code"), Series("Sketech")) 
  #Groups books and series in a structure that allows unified management of elements.

7. Flyweight: Efficiently shares common data among objects to reduce memory consumption.

• Ideal for large quantities of objects that share common states, such as characters in a text editor or nodes in graphs.

  BookCache.get("b1", copy_id); 
  #Uses a cache to share common instances of books, reducing memory usage.

A small change shouldn't put your software in crisis; it's time to step in and review your software structure to prevent minor adjustments from escalating into major issues. Each small improvement you make today strengthens your system's resilience for tomorrow.

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🔊 Enjoy our chat on Behavioral Design Patterns - Listen to Sketᵉch Podcast

Are you experiencing rigid coupling between objects? Let’s fix that! Let’s explore behavioral patterns to help you decouple interactions and improve your code’s flexibility, making scalability and maintenance easier

1. Chain of Responsibility
   Passes requests through a handler chain where each decides to process or delegate. Decouples requesters from processors.

2. Command
   Encapsulates requests as objects, allowing parameterization, delayed execution, and undo/redo. Decouples sender from receiver.

3. Iterator
   Provides a uniform way to traverse collections, hiding internal implementation details.

4. Memento
   Captures and restores an object’s state, preserving encapsulation and enabling undo functionality.

5. Observer
   Establishes a subscription system where observers update automatically when the subject changes.

6. State
   Alters object behavior based on internal state, encapsulating state transitions and adding new states without modifying the object.

7. Strategy
   Encapsulates algorithms as interchangeable entities, allowing runtime selection without altering the context.

8. Template Method
   Defines an algorithm skeleton, allowing subclasses to override specific steps while preserving structure.

9. Mediator
   Centralizes communication between objects, reducing dependencies and simplifying interactions.

10. Visitor
    Separates algorithms from object structures, allowing new operations without modifying existing classes, useful in object hierarchies.

Integrating these behavioral patterns into your development can open up new perspectives on how your components interact.

Think about how these concepts could impact the architecture of your next project and see the benefits in real time.

Thank you for reading! You’ll find more insights and visuals on my socials, where I continue sharing new ideas and approaches. Happy coding!

Sketᵉch | Visual Thinking for Software Engineers

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