behavioral-design-patterns

name

behavioral-design-patterns

description

Select, implement, compare, teach, or review the ten classic behavioral design patterns: Chain of Responsibility, Command, Iterator, Mediator, Memento, Observer, State, Strategy, Template Method, and Visitor. Use when request routing, request objects, traversal, peer collaboration, snapshots, events, lifecycle behavior, algorithms, workflow skeletons, or operations over stable object types is the central design pressure.

Behavioral design patterns

Read references/patterns.md before making a recommendation or reviewing an implementation.

Workflow

1. Describe who owns the behavior, who initiates it, and which dimension is expected to vary.
2. Classify the pressure: route, reify, traverse, coordinate, restore, notify, transition, select an algorithm, fix a skeleton, or add operations over stable types.
3. Specify ordering, failure, cancellation, concurrency, reentrancy, and lifecycle semantics where the chosen pattern can hide them.
4. Compare close alternatives explicitly, especially State versus Strategy, Observer versus Mediator, Strategy versus Template Method, and Command versus Chain of Responsibility.
5. Test the collaboration rather than canonical class names.
6. Keep orchestration separate from intrinsic component behavior and reject the pattern when a direct call or built-in language protocol is clearer.