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I'd hate to be the Gang of Four, especially since they wrote their book 20 years ago. Since then numerous people (including myself) have discussed how to evolv

by steego 9y ago

I'd hate to be the Gang of Four, especially since they wrote their book 20 years ago. Since then numerous people (including myself) have discussed how to evolve some of their ideas given today's landscape. My position is many ideas are still valid in their book, but they are less novel today and are often implemented with simpler tools. I'm sure the Gang would concur. Other ideas may be less valid over time and I'd be surprised if the team didn't grow in their perspective.

eropple 9y ago
I forget who said it, but I ascribe to the notion that most design patterns exist to work around insufficiencies in languages or ecosystems. To that end, a lot of them totally still exist--they've just been reduced in difficulty and ceremony, as you mention. The command pattern, for example, is literally just a closure.
- Denzel 9y ago
  You're probably thinking of when Peter Norvig said: "Design patterns are bug reports against your programming language."
Tobani 9y ago
> I'm sure the Gang would concur. I'm pretty sure this is the case. I think that the ideas are great in producing a vocabulary for classes of structures within software architecture the way people creating a car can talk about gears, rotors, pistons, gaskets. Whether or not you have the right rotor/gears/gasket/piston is up to the specific case. And sure some of those things may become like carburetors, and may become largely obsolete. But there is definitely a value in having a consistent vocabulary for things like "That box that controls the air-fuel-ratio mixture before it goes into the cylinder."
InclinedPlane 9y ago
Same problem a lot of good ideas have (like unit testing or agile), an idea meant to be evolved and applied thoughtfully instead becomes ossified instantly and applied mindlessly, with many mistakes, and zealously. The concept of design patterns is highly useful. The particular patterns in one book would always be of limited usefulness. Often times devs are more eager to prove their smarts than to get a job done well.
- steego 9y ago
  > ...an idea meant to be evolved and applied thoughtfully instead becomes ossified instantly and applied mindlessly, with many mistakes, and zealously. That's such a good quote, I just may copy + paste it mindlessly into my next presentation and assert it with zeal. (With credit of course)

by steego 9y ago

eropple 9y ago

I forget who said it, but I ascribe to the notion that most design patterns exist to work around insufficiencies in languages or ecosystems. To that end, a lot of them totally still exist--they've just been reduced in difficulty and ceremony, as you mention. The command pattern, for example, is literally just a closure.

Denzel 9y ago
You're probably thinking of when Peter Norvig said: "Design patterns are bug reports against your programming language."

Tobani 9y ago

> I'm sure the Gang would concur. I'm pretty sure this is the case. I think that the ideas are great in producing a vocabulary for classes of structures within software architecture the way people creating a car can talk about gears, rotors, pistons, gaskets. Whether or not you have the right rotor/gears/gasket/piston is up to the specific case. And sure some of those things may become like carburetors, and may become largely obsolete. But there is definitely a value in having a consistent vocabulary for things like "That box that controls the air-fuel-ratio mixture before it goes into the cylinder."

InclinedPlane 9y ago

Same problem a lot of good ideas have (like unit testing or agile), an idea meant to be evolved and applied thoughtfully instead becomes ossified instantly and applied mindlessly, with many mistakes, and zealously. The concept of design patterns is highly useful. The particular patterns in one book would always be of limited usefulness. Often times devs are more eager to prove their smarts than to get a job done well.

steego 9y ago
> ...an idea meant to be evolved and applied thoughtfully instead becomes ossified instantly and applied mindlessly, with many mistakes, and zealously. That's such a good quote, I just may copy + paste it mindlessly into my next presentation and assert it with zeal. (With credit of course)