What is the difference between a mixin and the decorator pattern?

Posted by leeand00 on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by leeand00
Published on 2010-04-06T02:16:02Z Indexed on 2010/04/06 2:23 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 237

Filed under:

decorator

|

mixin

|

language-agnostic

The Decorator Pattern is dynamic extension-at-runtime of classes. It dynamically forms a is-a relationship.

I started to wonder if I was over-complicating my API by using the Decorator Pattern after I got this answer about the difference between a mixin and an abstract class.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about decorator

Refresh decorator

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm trying to write a decorator that 'refreshes' after being called, but where the refreshing only occurs once after the last function exits. Here is an example: @auto_refresh def a(): print "In a" @auto_refresh def b(): print "In b" a() If a() is called, I want the refresh function… >>> More
Pylons FormEncode @validate decorator pass parameters into re-render action

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am attempting to use the validate decorator in Pylons with FormEncode and I have encountered an issue. I am attempting to validate a form on a controller action that requires parameters, and if the validation fails, the parameters aren't passed back in when the form is re-rendered. Here's an example… >>> More
Graph limitations - Should I use Decorator?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have a functional AdjacencyListGraph class that adheres to a defined interface GraphStructure. In order to layer limitations on this (eg. acyclic, non-null, unique vertex data etc.), I can see two possible routes, each making use of the GraphStructure interface: Create a single class ("ControlledGraph")… >>> More
Flexible Decorator Pattern?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I was looking for a pattern to model something I'm thinking of doing in a personal project and I was wondering if a modified version of the decorator patter would work. Basicly I'm thinking of creating a game where the characters attributes are modified by what items they have equiped. The way that… >>> More
Is WPF Decorator class useful?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I need to create control to draw border around its child. So, I have created class and derived it from Decorator: class RoundedBoxDecorator : Decorator { protected override Size ArrangeOverride(Size arrangeSize) { //some source } protected override void OnRender(DrawingContext… >>> More

Related posts about mixin

Groovy Mixin on Instance (Dynamic Mixin)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm trying to achieve following: class A { def foo() { "foo" } } class B { def bar() { "bar" } } A.mixin B def a = new A() a.foo() + a.bar() with one significant difference - I would like to do the mixin on the instance: a.mixin B but this results in groovy.lang.MissingMethodException:… >>> More
Using one mixin from LESS within another mixin

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am trying to use a mix that calculates the base line height in another that contains my base font styles. Each time I try to compile, I get an error. Here is an example. .lineHeight(@sizeValue){ @remValue: @sizeValue; @pxValue: (@sizeValue * 10); line-height: ~"@{pxValue}px"; line-height: ~"@{remValue}rem"; } … >>> More
Does Objective-C support Mixin like Ruby?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
In Ruby, there's Modules and you can extend a class by "mixing-in" the module. Module myModule def printone print "one" end end Class myClass extend myModule end theOne = myClass.new theOne.printone >> one In Objective-C, I find that I have a set of common methods that I want… >>> More
call a class method from inside an instance method from a module mixin (rails)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Curious how one would go about calling a class method from inside an instance method of a module which is included by an active record class. For example I want both user and client models to share the nuts and bolts of password encryption. # app/models class User < ActiveRecord::Base include… >>> More
Ruby mixin gives unidentified constant error

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
In irb, I do this class Text include FileUtils end I get: NameError: uninitialized constant Test::FileUtils If I just do: include FileUtils (i.e. now class) everthing works. What gives? >>> More