In my attempt at brevity I fear I lost some context. I do however firmly stand by if you are not actively coding, you are not a programmer. What the exact timel

In my attempt at brevity I fear I lost some context. I do however firmly stand by if you are not actively coding, you are not a programmer. What the exact timeline is, I will gladly leave up for debate, but it's not like riding a bicycle - you lose ability over time. As for design patterns, I think we are in agreement (at least in principle) about their worth as a starting point. I am not at all saying that GoF (or any other design pattern text) should be followed. Rather, that anyone seriously considering themselves a programmer should have an understanding of the design patterns that are pertinent to their language/methodology, and hopefully their own opinions on which make sense or not. I likely have too high of a standard for the term programmer, but feel it has been steadily lowered by this type of talk and wanted to at least try to move the bar back up.