Design patterns

The origin of design patterns lies in work done by an architect named Christopher Alexander during the late 1970s. He began by writing two books, A Pattern Language and A Timeless Way of Building which, in addition to giving examples, described his rationalle for documenting patterns. The pattern movement became very quiet until 1987 when patterns appeared again at an OOPSLA conference.

Design patterns gained popularity in computer science after the book Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software was published in 1994 (Gamma et al.). The Gang of Four (GoF) patterns are generally considered the foundation for all other patterns. They are categorized in three groups: Creational, Structural, and Behavioral.

What are Design Patterns?

In software engineering, a design pattern is a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design. A design pattern is not a finished design that can be transformed directly into code. It is a description or template for how to solve a problem that can be used in many different situations. Object-oriented design patterns typically show relationships and interactions between classes or objects, without specifying the final application classes or objects that are involved. Algorithms are not thought of as design patterns, since they solve computational problems rather than design problems.

Why Study Design Patterns?

Now that we have an idea about what design patterns are, let us see, "Why to study them?" There are several reasons that are obvious and some that are not so obvious.

The most commonly stated reasons for studying patterns are because patterns allow us to:

Reuse solutions— By reusing already established designs, we get a head start on our problems and avoid gotchas. We get the benefit of learning from the experience of others. We do not have to reinvent solutions for commonly recurring problems.

Establish common terminology— Communication and teamwork require a common base of vocabulary and a common viewpoint of the problem. Design patterns provide a common point of reference during the analysis and design phase of a project.

However, there is a third reason to study design patterns:

Patterns give a higher-level perspective on the problem and on the process of design and object orientation. This frees from the tyranny of dealing with the details too early.

Design patterns can speed up the development process by providing tested, proven development paradigms. Effective software design requires considering issues that may not become visible until later in the implementation. Reusing design patterns helps to prevent subtle issues that can cause major problems, and it also improves code readability for coders and architects who are familiar with the patterns.

Notable books in the design pattern genre include:

Fowler, Martin (2002). Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0321127426.

Gamma, Erich; Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides (1995). Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-63361-2.

Hohpe, Gregor; Bobby Woolf (2003). Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-321-20068-3.