Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture, Volume 1, A System of Patterns

Chapter 1

Patterns

…Somewhere in the deeply remote past it seriously traumatized a small random group of atoms drifting through the empty sterility of space and made them cling together in the most extraordinarily unlikely patterns. These patterns quickly learnt to copy themselves (this was part of what was so extraordinary about the patterns) and went on to cause massive trouble on every planet they drifted on to. That was how life began in the Universe …

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

 

Patterns help you build on the collective experience of skilled software engineers. They capture existing, well-proven experience in software development and help to promote good design practise. Every pattern deals with a specific, recurring problem in the design or implementation of a software system. Patterns can be used to construct software architectures with specific properties.

In this chapter we give an in-depth explanation of what patterns for software architecture are, and how they help you build software.

1.1 What is a Pattern?

When experts work on a particular problem, it is unusual for them to tackle it by inventing a new solution that is completely distinct from existing ones. They often recall a similar problem they have already solved, and reuse the essence of its solution to solve the new problem. This kind of ‘expert behavior’, the thinking in problem-solution pairs, is common to many different domains, such as architecture [Ale79], economics [Etz64] and ...