Meeting C++ 2025 - Design Patterns - The Most Common Misconceptions (1 of N)

Klaus Iglberger

On Day 3 at 11:40 (CET/Berlin) in Track B [Opal Room and online]

Design patterns are everywhere, as they are the key to managing dependencies between software entities.But despite their fundamental importance, there are some common misconceptions about them, in particularabout several of the most often used design patterns:

• Factory functions are frequently mistaken for the Factory Method design pattern
• The Builder design pattern is often associated with the implementation of constructors
• The Bridge and Strategy design patterns are regularly mixed-up
• The modern form of the Visitor design pattern, std::variant, is often considered a replacement of virtual functions
• (Bonus) The Decorator design pattern is sometimes mistaken as the Chain of Responsibility design pattern

In this talk I'll shed some light on these misconceptions and explain why they obstruct the propercommunication about software design and architecture. Additionally, I’ll address the biggest misconceptionof all: design patterns are a tool for object-oriented programming.

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