Re: Questions for the 'Terminology FAQ'.

[Zach Frey <zfrey bright net>]

Hi Archit,

> About the definition of the factory. Would it be ok to say that a Factory is
> like a 'librarian' for a 'library' (group of related) of objects?

No, in fact this is a very misleading way to look at it.

A factory is an object that creates other objects.

A factory is *not* a collection of objects.  Generally, factory objects
do not track references to their created objects (I'm assuming that
Bonobo factories do not; I scanned the code and couldn't see where
they might.)

So, rather than being like a librarian, a factory object is more like
a printing press.  Or maybe a "book-on-demand" publisher.


peace,

Zach