Are there any viable alternatives to the GOF Singleton Pattern?

Question

Let\'s face it. The Singleton Pattern is highly controversial topic with hordes programmers on both sides of the fence. There are those who feel like the Singleto

Answer 1

I think the best place to police the singleton is at the class design level. At this stage, you should be able to map out the interactions between classes and see if something absolutely, definitely requires that only 1 instance of this class is ever in existence at any time of the applications life.

If that is the case, then you have a singleton. If you are throwing singletons in as a convenience during coding then you should really be revisiting your design and also stop coding said singletons :)

And yes, 'police' is the word I meant here rather than 'avoid'. The singleton isn't something to be avoided (in the same way that goto and global variables aren't something to be avoided). Instead, you should be monitoring it's use and ensuring that it is the best method to get what you want done effectively.