This chapter covers the Flyweight pattern.
GoF Definition
Use sharing to support large numbers of fine-grained objects efficiently.
Concept
The GoF said the following about flyweights:
A flyweight is a shared object that can be used in multiple contexts simultaneously. The flyweight acts as an independent object in each context—it’s indistinguishable from an instance of the object that’s not shared. Flyweights cannot make assumptions about the context in which they operate. The key concept here is the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic state. Intrinsic state is stored ...
