I’m Mike

The most basic presentation pattern is probably that old standby, the Model View Controller (MVC). Rather than re-hash MVC, which has already been covered elsewhere, I figured I’d jump ahead to something a bit more interesting: the Front Controller.

Presentation patterns in general are designed to promote the independent operation of the business logic (model) and presentation (view) tiers of a system. The controller is responsible for coordinating the operations of the other two layers by taking user input, manipulating the model, and causing the view to react appropriately. The Front Controller pattern goes a step further by exposing a single entry point to your system, and delegating incoming requests to objects that implement the proper behavior. Read the rest of this entry »

Global variables tie classes to context and create unnatural interdependencies in an application. A Singleton ensures that a class only has one instance, and provides a global point of access to it. If a system only needs one instance of a class, and that instance is used in different parts of the system, you can control instantiation and access by making the class a singleton. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve been programming for any period of time then you’ve probably heard about these things called patterns. But unless you’re a professional you’re probably not quite sure what they are, or what they’re good for. I’ve decided to start cataloging some of the software patterns I use most frequently in my projects. But before I do that, I figured I should try explaining what a software pattern is. Read the rest of this entry »