The Simple Factory defined
The Simple Factory isn’t actually a Design Pattern; it’s more of a programming idiom. But it is commonly used, so we’ll give it a Head First Pattern Honorable Mention. Some developers do mistake this idiom for the “Factory Pattern,” so the next time there is an awkward silence between you and another developer, you’ve got a nice topic to break the ice.
Just because Simple Factory isn’t a REAL pattern doesn’t mean we shouldn’t check out how it’s put together. Let’s take a look at the class diagram of our new Pizza Store: