Smells to avoid when you seek information about GoF patterns on the Web

Abstract

The target audience of this paper is developers looking for information about the Gang of Four (GoF) patterns on the Web. The information we find on the Web about the GoF patterns may deviate from the original definitions of the patterns. In a prior study, we found intent deviations, and missing, incomplete, and erroneous participants. Depending on the pattern, some deviations are more critical than others. In this paper, we provide a more detailed analysis of the deviations that occur in the information we find on the Web for each pattern. The result of the study is a catalog of the most important deviations, which we call smells. The catalog includes smells that compromise the intent of the patterns, smells that violate the abstract coupling principle, and smells in which the patterns are not used in the right context.

Keywords

GoF design patterns, deviating definitions, deviating examples

Cite as:

Apostolos Zarras, Panos Vassiliadis, “Smells to avoid when you seek information about GoF patterns on the Web”, Journal of Object Technology, Volume 25, no. 2 ( 2026), pp. 2:1-21, doi:10.5381/jot.2026.25.02.a3.