Python 3 Object-Oriented Programming - Third Edition

The abstract factory pattern

The abstract factory pattern is normally used when we have multiple possible implementations of a system that depend on some configuration or platform issue. The calling code requests an object from the abstract factory, not knowing exactly what class of object will be returned. The underlying implementation returned may depend on a variety of factors, such as current locale, operating system, or local configuration.

Common examples of the abstract factory pattern include code for operating-system-independent toolkits, database backends, and country-specific formatters or calculators. An operating-system-independent GUI toolkit might use an abstract factory pattern that returns a set of WinForm widgets under Windows, ...