Design Patterns Explained

Chapter 4 • A Standard Object-Oriented Solution 65
In this case, I felt strongly that a better solution existed. Yet, two
hours later, this was still the best I could come up with. The problem,
it turned out, was my general approach, as will be seen later in this
book.
Pay attention to your instincts.
Gut instinct is a surprisingly powerful indicator of the quality of a
design. I suggest that developers learn to listen to their instincts.
By gut instinct, I mean the sensation in your stomach when you
see something you do not like. I know this sounds unscientific
(and it is), but my experience has shown me consistently that
when I have an instinctive dislike for a design, a better one lies
around the corner. Of course, there are sometimes several different
corners nearby and I'm not always sure where the solution is.
Summary
I showed how easy it is to solve this problem by special-casing
everything. The solution is straightforward. It allows me to add
additional methods without changing what I already have. How ever,
there are several disadvantages to it: high redundancy, low cohesion,
and class explosion (from future changes).
The overreliance on inheritance will result in higher maintenance
costs than should occur (or at least, than I feel should occur).
In this chapter