> build large systems DP are oft misused, but I think the main idea is a pattern language - a way to communicate to other developers what the architecture is.

> build large systems DP are oft misused, but I think the main idea is a pattern language - a way to communicate to other developers what the architecture is. This is especially important on larger, more complex projects with more developers and developer turnover. Understanding the architecture of a project is crucial for grokking it, but usually not well documented. Even just "DPs are naming conventions" is helpful in this regard. I really disagree with the idea that most DPs are particularly clever or helpful - they are just the way you'd end up solving those kinds of problems yourself. If you look at your own pre-DP code, you'll see design patterns. What they give is a standardized terminology ("pattern language"). Sometimes an architecture seems more complex than necessary, but makes sense as you better understand the whole problem. e.g. how curl handles http. e.g. youtube-dl. (for me, when I reverse-engineered mini-versions of them, then studied their source) tl;dr "DPs are docs"