Design Patterns discussion

[Jesús Alonso <kenchoweb AT hotmail.com>]

> I'm wondering if you can give me some additional details as to how these
> are different? Their applicability, purpose and structure seem nearly
> identical: make the behavior of the context class change dynamically as
> the state/strategy changes. Both patterns even mentions how they can be
> tied into the flyweight pattern. The only difference I can readily see
> is that the state pattern mentions transitions while the strategy does
> not. Am I missing something?
>
>
>
> Thank you for your time,
>
> -James

I'm not sure, as I haven't used Strategy pattern with the exception of 
academic purposes. Anyways, the difference I see between them is that the 
State pattern acts as a finite state machine, so the transitions between 
them are inside of them, hiding that responsibility away from the client, 
while the Strategy pattern requires the client to transition between 
strategies.