Stairway Pattern

How do you feel when you invite your friend for a private family function and he brings along a dozen strangers (his friends) ?

This is similar to the scenario when you want to add a library as reference and in turn ends up referring a different set of libraries which you are not directly dependent. This scenario is perfectly defined by the Entourage Anti-Pattern. The Entourage pattern also describes the (avoidable) practice of packaging the abstraction and implementation in the same assembly.

The stairway pattern describes a better alternative by organizing your abstractions and implementations in separate assemblies, which in turn allows both to evolve and vary independently.

It also means the references now doesn’t bring an entire entourage of assemblies along. One of the thumb rules you can adhere too is to ensure the abstraction assembly doesn’t depend on any external references.