Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design

An Approach to Handling New Requirements

Many times in life and many times in software applications, you have to make choices about the general approach to performing a task or solving a problem. Most of us have learned that taking the easiest route in the short run can lead to serious complications in the long run. For example, none of us would ignore oil changes for our car beyond a certain point. True, I may not change the oil every 3,000 miles, but I also do not wait until 30,000 miles before changing the oil (if I did so, there would be no need to change the oil any more: the car would not work!). Or consider desktop filing—the technique many of us have of using the tops of our desks as a filing cabinet. It works well in the short run, but ...