Slight tangent: if one is interested in design patterns, consider reading the book "A Pattern Language", 1977 by Christopher Alexander et al. It's the original

Slight tangent: if one is interested in design patterns, consider reading the book "A Pattern Language", 1977 by Christopher Alexander et al. It's the original patterns book, for architecture. Continuing tangent: if that sounds interesting, please consider also reading the precursor book "The Timeless Way of Building" by Christopher Alexander. It focuses on the theory and the philosophy. This is a beautiful book, in both senses of the beauty of the book itself, and the beauty of the ideas contained inside. It is very humane. "There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. And as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills,and as our faces are." It wouldn't hurt to have more humane and beautiful things in the world, particularly those that are designed and built and customised by those who must inhabit or use them. Whether those things are buildings, or software, or laws, or societal goals. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0195024028 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0195024028 http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TheTimelessWayOfBuilding http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TheTimelessWayOfBuilding