Design patterns are fundamental, you cannot avoid using them, the key is to understand this, learn about good design patterns versus bad design patterns (or "an

Design patterns are fundamental, you cannot avoid using them, the key is to understand this, learn about good design patterns versus bad design patterns (or "anti-patterns") and use them appropriately. The book "Design Patterns" by the GoF does include many patterns which are specifically targeted to working around the shortcomings of "weak" languages, specifically Java. However, that book is not the end-all-be-all of design patterns, and using different, more straightforward "idioms" in more expressive (typically more "functional" languages) doesn't mean you're avoiding using design patterns, you're just using different ones. Unfortunately, a lot of people make the mistake of seeing the GoF list of design patterns as being the holy scripture of patterns, when it's merely an enumeration of some patterns that proved useful for a particular language in particular contexts. The concept itself (of looking at design at a level above mere algorithms and data structures) is hugely important, it's unfortunate that it suffers from a bit of the "kleenex" effect, instead of being seen as a general purpose concept with wide ranging applicability.