Patterns

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[[Category:Patterns]]
 
[[Category:Patterns]]
What began as ''design patterns'' has grown into a diverse movement, including antipatterns, architectural patterns, organisational patterns etc.  This page is a starting point for the various families of patterns.
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What began as ''design patterns'' has grown into a diverse movement, including antipatterns, architectural patterns, organisational patterns etc.   
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== What is a Pattern? ==
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A pattern is an abstract representation of a solution to some form of problem. A pattern will detail the current situation, the cases where the pattern is applicable, the benefits and disadvantages of the pattern, other related patterns and the way of adding/changing code to apply pattern.
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== Types of Patterns ==
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=== Pattern Families ===
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This section is a starting point for the various families of patterns. These are the most well defined categories in the current literature.
 
   
 
   
* [[Design patterns]]
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* [[Design patterns]] - Patterns directly related to the composition and design of OO systems. These must be applicable to multiple domains (horizontal).
* [[Architectural patterns]]
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* [[Architectural patterns]] - Patterns specifically concerning architecting OO programs.
* [[Analysis patterns]]
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* [[Analysis patterns]] - Patterns related to a specific domain (vertical).
* [[Antipatterns]]
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* [[Antipatterns]] - Patterns that detail a problem in an existing program and the solution.
* [[Amelioration patterns]]
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* [[Amelioration patterns]] - Provide remedies to exiting code.
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* [[Management patterns]] - Patterns around process and team management.
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=== Vertical vs Horizontal ===
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This concept is proposed by a number of authors, including [[William Brown 1998]].
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* Vertical patterns are those that apply to a single domain (i.e. [[Analysis Patterns]]).
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* Horizontal patterns are those that apply across domains.
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== Are the families different? ==
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While authors have previously argued that all of these families of patterns are different, there is a growing thought that they contain many strong similarities to each other. There may be cases where certain families are actually not a logical distinction to draw.
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* [[Antipatterns]] & [[Amelioration patterns]] are arguably the same thing, both detail an existing problem and a solution. They both require an existing body of code.
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* [[Design patterns]] & [[Architectural patterns]] are arguably an overlapping set of patterns. Potentially a distinction can be made at the level of abstraction at which they are used.
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* [[Antipatterns]] & [[Design patterns]] - Potentially, these two areas of patterns have a large area of overlap. The only potential difference is that Antipatterns require an existing problem that has already had an attempt at implementation, Design patterns only require a problem at any stage of the design process to be used.

Revision as of 06:04, 27 September 2009

What began as design patterns has grown into a diverse movement, including antipatterns, architectural patterns, organisational patterns etc.

Contents

What is a Pattern?

A pattern is an abstract representation of a solution to some form of problem. A pattern will detail the current situation, the cases where the pattern is applicable, the benefits and disadvantages of the pattern, other related patterns and the way of adding/changing code to apply pattern.

Types of Patterns

Pattern Families

This section is a starting point for the various families of patterns. These are the most well defined categories in the current literature.

Vertical vs Horizontal

This concept is proposed by a number of authors, including William Brown 1998.

  • Vertical patterns are those that apply to a single domain (i.e. Analysis Patterns).
  • Horizontal patterns are those that apply across domains.

Are the families different?

While authors have previously argued that all of these families of patterns are different, there is a growing thought that they contain many strong similarities to each other. There may be cases where certain families are actually not a logical distinction to draw.

  • Antipatterns & Amelioration patterns are arguably the same thing, both detail an existing problem and a solution. They both require an existing body of code.
  • Design patterns & Architectural patterns are arguably an overlapping set of patterns. Potentially a distinction can be made at the level of abstraction at which they are used.
  • Antipatterns & Design patterns - Potentially, these two areas of patterns have a large area of overlap. The only potential difference is that Antipatterns require an existing problem that has already had an attempt at implementation, Design patterns only require a problem at any stage of the design process to be used.
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