Re: design pattern for a file converter...

From:
Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Sat, 11 Dec 2010 13:57:41 +0000
Message-ID:
<alpine.DEB.1.10.1012111336330.25886@urchin.earth.li>
On Fri, 10 Dec 2010, Stefan Ram wrote:

Tom Whittaker <ojasrege@yahoo.com> writes:

Does anyone have any insight into the best design pattern(s) to use
for this feature?


 I tend to write such code in a more procedural manner first.

 Then, I see the patterns in the code.

 Then, I refactor to make the patterns explicit if this seems
 to be of any use at all.


This is what i do too. When i was younger, i used to start with a lovely
objecty design. I think what broke that habit was spending a few years in
Python instead of Java, mostly writing very simple, procedural programs,
because of the nature of the work i was doing. When i came back to Java, i
found myself in the same mindset as Stefan - start simple, and refactor
out the objects and patterns as they become obvious.

 While it is true that there can be a ?rush to code? problem,
 there also might be a ?premature design? problem.


Absolutely.

 The goal is to solve the problem and to get source code
 that can be read and maintained easily - it is not to apply
 design patterns.


Perfectly put.

 When design patterns serve that purpose,
 they impose themselves on the experienced programmer during
 the development.


They can do, but do not inevitably do so. If you apply the right pattern
at the right time, it reduces complexity from then on; that moment can
come at any point in development. But there's no sense trying to shoehorn
in a pattern before it does.

tom

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