Design Patterns: Blueprints You Need
05 Dec 2024Just imagine trying to create a house without a blueprint. Chaotic, right? Builders would be working from scratch, figuring out each step as they come, without much prediction for mistakes down the line. Eventually a house may be built, but it would most definitely go way past its deadlines, have multiple design flaws and structural mistakes, and each worker would probably be beyond frustrated from the chaos.
Remarkably, this is quite similar to software development, where careful and reusable plans can prevent all these events from ever occurring. This is where design patterns come into play; the blueprint for bringing your programming ideas to fruition.
(don’t be this guy ↓)
Design patterns are foundational solutions to common problems in software development. They may not always be specifically designed for every problem, but they are quite useful for reference in order to guide stressed out developers, (like myself 99% of the time), to get around structuring applications. Something like that of a recipe book with various ingredients and instructions to make ‘perfect’ dishes, which allow you to adjust them to make what works for you.
Patterns in Practice:
Early in my introduction to object oriented programming, I had the challenge of managing data effectively while ensuring some type of security. I did so by designing a simple class, called Employee, which modeled the attributes of an employee and encapsulated them using getter and setter methods.
Looking back on it now, this demonstrated both creational and structural design patterns, both the instantiating and structuring of classes. Through that experience, I found reference to it particularly useful for many future object-creation’s, and realized just how handy it was to reduce dependencies and overall have simpler, reusable code.
Why Does It Matter?
Sure, design patterns may seem like just theory at first glance. However, they provide much needed tools and guidance to elevate software development from the get-go. They enhance readability, promote what the best course of action is, and make code strong against change. They are indeed the blueprints that can bring organization to chaos, and will bring about code that is mistake-free, efficient, and well-thought out.