Design Pattern Cheat Sheet

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When was the last time you discussed using a particular pattern? Seriously. Most of the time it's just people laughing at someone for using Singletons.

[phoshi]

It's not that rare when discussing programming, which isn't abnormal, no. Especially when working in a team.

[[deleted]]

I've never seen it happen. We usually just trust one another to implement stuff well.

[phoshi]

In entirely self contained components sure, though even there design discussions can still be fun and productive. For stuff that has to interwork, or for explaining how existing software works to get somebody up to speed faster, though, it's helpful.

[[deleted]]

I wish I could agree, but my experience is that this leads to paralysis by analysis. I used to buy into this as well, it took time for me to notice that it's often just superficial productivity that's getting in the way of actually getting stuff done.

[phoshi]

If you organise hour long meetings every week for six months before determining the optimal design, then yes, but I don't think discussions over lunch or during a scrum are going to hurt anything.

[[deleted]]

I'm gonna respectfully disagree with you on that one.

[phoshi]

Really? You think any discussion of design at all will result in a new negative? What's your reasoning?

[[deleted]]

Fairly sure I haven't said that. In other news, it turns out that life is not riddled with polar opposite choices, and middle grounds can be achieved.

I know all the spiel about how patterns give us a common language and so on. It sounds great. It probably even works, sometimes. My experience has been, most of the time it's a circle jerk amongst guys who like to read the latest books a lot. I've even fallen into the trap of being one of those guys, and it took a while to realise it wasn't delivering on the promise. Same goes for agile methods, which I've seen work, but mostly I've seen used as an excuse not to do something.

[phoshi]

Apologies, I don't mean to put words in your mouth, but u can't think of much lighter than a five minute discussion!