Software Design Patterns Questions
The Prototype design pattern is a creational design pattern that allows the creation of objects by cloning an existing object, known as the prototype, instead of creating new objects from scratch. It involves creating a prototype object and then creating new objects by copying the prototype. This pattern is useful when creating new objects is expensive or complex, and when the objects to be created have similar properties and behaviors.
The Prototype design pattern typically involves the following components:
1. Prototype: This is the interface or abstract class that declares the clone method, which is used to create a copy of the prototype object.
2. Concrete Prototype: This is the concrete implementation of the prototype interface or class. It implements the clone method to create a copy of itself.
3. Client: This is the class or code that uses the prototype object to create new objects. It requests the prototype to clone itself and then modifies the cloned object as needed.
By using the Prototype design pattern, we can avoid the overhead of creating new objects from scratch and instead create new objects by cloning an existing prototype. This pattern promotes flexibility and reusability, as it allows us to easily create new objects with different initial states and configurations.