24 - PATTERNS AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Summary

This is my abortive attempt to bring patterns to the masses. Dr. Dobbs (which I used to read as a Silicon Valley brat in the late '70s) called to ask for a pattern article. I thought, “Here is my chance to step outside the narrow confines of the object universe.”

Ha. Nobody got it. I'm sure I misjudged my audience, but I think there are more serious problems with the presentation here. Looking at the paper again, though, I'll be hanged if I can figure what. I'll take a shot at it, though.

One of the problems is certainly that I am talking about a different kind of pattern here than most people talk about. The patterns in the Design Patterns book, for example, show you how people use objects over and over. You can take the same approach to using a particular framework, however. People use MVC the same way over and over. You can write the things they do as patterns.

Part of the problem with the paper now that I look at it is that I got away from Ward's question, “What is the one thing you want the reader to take away?” This paper is all over the place. Another problem is that the paper isn't explicit about even those points that it does make. It tells a story (kinda), but it doesn't come out and say, “Communication is the problem.”