In which I successfully resist the urge to make someone's head explode

[canuckotter]

There's a going phenomenon in computer science circles called "patterns". The idea is that a huge number of the problems programmers and designers are faced with have been solved before, in a variety of clever and not-so-clever ways. As people identify recurring problems and clever, flexible solutions for those problems, they write them down and

Comments

[iambic_cub]

I'd say patterns are less a 'going phenomenon' and more of an intrinsic aspect of software design, seeing as the Design Patterns book is 15 years old now. (I looked it up on Amazon, but I knew it was well over a decade old - I bought my copy back when I was still in Fredericton.)

At some point, I wouldn't mind flipping through the book. I remember when Design Patterns first took off, there were many, many references to Alexander's book, but it was so obscure, it was impossible to find a copy. Even in the university's library. (Well, OK, Andrea's library powers may have been able to find me a copy.) The only thing I really knew about Alexander's book was the example that balconies need to be at least six feet deep to be useful - I naively assumed the entire book was full of down-to-earth wisdom like that.