HISTORY OF THIS PATTERN LANGUAGE
- Most of the patterns in this language started out as observations about "things which worked well" in a particular pattern or
language
being
reviewed in a PLoP-95 writer's workshop.
- In the months which followed PLoP'95, many of these patterns were made available to practitioners conducting pattern writing courses,
and the feedback to the authors indicates that they have been very helpful.
- In addition, these patterns were reviewed extensively at PLoP-96 and became part of the working vocabulary of several review groups.
As a Note ....
- there is no single right way to write patterns.
- this pattern language describes and demonstrates a collection of writing
practices
which have been observed to be particularly effective. The language is targeted at both novice and experienced pattern writers: novices
may choose to treat these patterns as suggestions to be tried and to be adopted where they help, experts can use these patterns as a form
of checklist, helping them keep in mind some of the issues and forces in effective pattern writing.
- Unlike a prescriptive pattern language, which describes the steps or recipes for solving some problem, this pattern language
describes the desired result.
- The pattern author is free to employ different techniques to achieve these results. This approach should
allow this pattern language to be employed in whole or in part as the reader sees fit.
