Design Patterns discussion

[Bharathi Thiyagarajan <bharathi.thiyagarajan AT adcc.alcatel.be>]

Hello *

         I think I will give a glimpse of scenario of my problem so that
we can discuss and conclude which will be the best design pattern

          Here is the scenario:
                       I have 3 types of trace files (A , B, C) each has
its own format and requires a different way of parsing the file to pick
data from the file.
                        so Afile has a Aparser, Bfile has Bparser, and
Cfile has Cparser.  apart from these Aparser, Bparser, Cparser there are
common methods
                        that can be reused for parsing the file.

                          Now the design for this:

                                Trace        <>-------->    TraceParser

/          |                        \                (sorry the lines
here indicate inheritance/generalization)

AparserType   BparserType  CparserType

           Points for discussion:
              1.   If TraceParse has a method  ParserTrace which
AparseType , BparseType , CparserType has different implementation for
it --- It is Strategy
              2.   If TraceParser has many methods some of them are
common for the three parser types and some of then have been overridden
by the three parser Types -
                                  is it a template method ????
              3.   The input file at a point can be one of TraceType,
Trace will decided by checking the file which TraceType is it and based
on that object  AparserType/
                       BparserType/CparserType is created

        Please enlighten me , correct me so that I will learn from my
mistakes.

Thanks & Regards
Bharathi