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POBuilder design pattern: why do we need a Director?
 

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    <p>Recently I've come across the Builder design pattern. It seems that different authors use "Builder pattern" to refer to different flavours, so let me describe the pattern I'm asking about.</p> <p>We have an algorithm for creating <em>products</em>, i.e., objects of different types. At a sufficiently high level of abstraction the algorithm is the same for all product types, but each product type requires a different implementation of each of the algorithm's abstract steps. For example, we might have the following cake-baking algorithm:</p> <pre><code> 1. Add liquids. 2. Mix well. 3. Add dry ingredients. 4. Mix well. 5. Pour batter into baking pan. 6. Bake. 7. Return baked cake. </code></pre> <p>Different cakes would require different implementations of these steps, i.e., what liquids/dry ingredients to use, what speed to mix at, how long to bake, etc.</p> <p>The pattern says to do it like so. For each product we create a <em>concrete builder</em> class with an implementation for each of the above steps. All of these classes are derived from an <em>abstract builder</em> base class, which is essentially an interface. So, for example, we will have an abstract base class <code>CakeBaker</code> with pure virtual methods <code>AddLiquid()</code>, <code>MixLiquids()</code>, etc. The concrete cake bakers will be concrete subclasses, e.g.,</p> <pre><code>class ChocolateCakeBaker : public CakeBaker { public: virtual void AddLiquids() { // Add three eggs and 1 cup of cream } virtual void AddDryIngredients() { // Add 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 3 tbsp cocoa powder, // 2 bars ground chocolate, 2 tsp baking powder } ... ... }; </code></pre> <p>The <code>LemonCitrusCakeBaker</code> would also be a subclass of <code>CakeBaker</code>, but would use different ingredients and quantities in its methods.</p> <p>The different cake types will similarly be subclasses of an abstract <code>Cake</code> base class.</p> <p>Finally, we have a class to implement the abstract algorithm. This is the <em>director</em>. In the bakery example we might call it <code>ExecutiveBaker</code>. This class would accept (from the client) a concrete builder object and use its methods in order to create and return the desired product.</p> <p>Here's my question. Why do we need the director to be separate from the abstract builder? Why not roll them into a single builder abstract base class, making the original abstract builder's public methods protected (and the concrete subclasses override these as before).</p>
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