Policy-based design, also known as policy-based class design or policy-based programming, is a computer programming paradigm based on an idiom for C++ known as policies. It has been described as a compile-time variant of the strategy pattern, and has connections with C++ template metaprogramming. It was first popularized by Andrei Alexandrescu with his 2001 book Modern C++ Design and his column Generic<Programming> in the C/C++ Users Journal.