"Reduced subclassing. Factory Method (107) often produces a hierarchy of
Creator classes that parallels the product class hierarchy. The Prototype
pattern lets you clone a prototype instead of asking a factory method to
make a new object. Hence you don't need a Creator class hierarchy at all.
This benefit applies primarily to languages like C++ that don't treat
classes as first-class objects. Languages that do, like Smalltalk and
Objective C, derive less benefit, since you can always use a class object
as a creator. Class objects already act like prototypes in these
languages." - GoF, page 120.
When I first read that, I thought to myself "what are they on about?". But
then I realized what they were saying. Does anybody else see the subtle
point they're making?
--
NOUN:1. Money or property bequeathed to another by will. 2. Something handed
down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past: a legacy of
religious freedom. ETYMOLOGY: MidE legacie, office of a deputy, from OF,
from ML legatia, from L legare, to depute, bequeath. www.bartleby.com/61/