in reply to Re^4: Builder design pattern with lots of parameters - trying to declutter design
in thread Builder design pattern with lots of parameters - trying to declutter design

The hope is that the dealer may, without any knowledge whatsoever about those items, just put a list in front of the client to answer. The only thing he knows is how to contact the builder with that filled out list and how to get the finished product into the hands of the client.

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Re^6: Builder design pattern with lots of parameters - trying to declutter design
by tospo (Hermit) on Mar 30, 2011 at 09:35 UTC
    I agree with jethro: as long as the dealer knows that there is some sort of tick-box list that he/she needs to put in front of the customer, then put in an envelope and assume that the builders knows what to do with this then it should be ok.
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Re^6: Builder design pattern with lots of parameters - trying to declutter design
by locked_user sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Mar 30, 2011 at 17:57 UTC

    I was referring more to the inherent complexity ... to the potential downside of having a large amount of product/model (etc.) specific decision making scattered hither-and-yon.   I deal mostly with legacy applications, including some that were launched with the most pristine of original designs, which quickly fell into grief on this point.   There will come a time when one of two things may happen:

    1. “Commonality” that naturally is sought to be implemented one-time in a parent class, becomes so inherently complex that the ancestor-class starts to devolve from a clean purebred to a mongrel pup.
    2. The “descendents” start to lose commonality with one another, because they have truly become apples and oranges, or apples and bricks.

    A “class hierarchy,” after all, is a dependency-tree that ties all of its participants together more-or-less at the hip.   (Or at the head, or an arm, or a foot.)   No matter how or where they are tied, they are tied.   Of course this has originally been done with the very best of intentions and with deliberate purpose.   It is relatively easy and harmless to do this when one anticipates incremental change; much harder when business reality dumps radical change into the picture and the system has no choice but to accommodate it.   The ugly word, “wedge,” and words considerably more ugly, will now enter daily conversation, and furtive hits on http://www.monster.com will increase.

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