Visitor Pattern / Element Stability
Kind: tension
Record: tension:element-stability-visitor-pattern
Canonical: Schema
"visitor-pattern" (design-patterns-core layer) is traded against "Element Stability" (design-patterns-core layer) — a principle cannot be scope-separated from a quality, metric, or cost it competes with; resolve by measuring "Element Stability" and choosing an explicit operating point.
Listed in Tensions, after Iterator Pattern / Simplicity and before Memento Pattern / Memory Footprint.