5 Pattern Writing

Frank Buschmann, Siemens AG; James Coplien, Lucent Technologies; Richard Gabriel, DreamSongs RPG, Inc.; and Christa Schwaninger, Siemens AG

Convention Centre
Room 12

Software patterns are a literary form, designed to communicate expert knowledge about system construction. The most useful patterns are the ones that address structural problems, and which are carefully written to be readable. This tutorial teaches pattern-writing skills in the context of the broader goals and values of the pattern community. A small amount of lecture is mixed with exercises and small work sessions. Participants do a comparative analysis of published patterns. In an associated follow-on workshop, participants work in small teams to write patterns, and to participate as an author in a writer's workshop.

This tutorial helps the attendee appreciate patterns as a literary form in the broader context of a pattern culture that has emerged over the past five years. Specifically, the attendees will learn: key aspects of the pattern value system, how to recognize traits of a well-written pattern, what to look for when reading and applying patterns, several popular pattern forms, pattern vocabulary, and the Writer's Workshop review format.

The tutorial will be followed by a highly interactive workshop (workshop 23) on Monday where participants apply the skills learned in the tutorial. The workshop will involve collaborative writing and personal consulting from the instructors. Each work will be reviewed in a writer's workshop format. See workshop 23 for more details.

Attendee Background: A basic software design background is helpful, but not necessary, to fully enjoy the workshop. We encourage attendance by individuals with diverse backgrounds, including (especially!) areas outside computer science.

Frank Buschmann is a co-author of "Patterns of Software Architecture" and is a software engineer at Siemens Corporate Technology in Munich. He has been involved in several concrete industrial software development projects.

Jim Coplien is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories in Naperville, Illinois. He is the author of the "Software Patterns" management briefing and co-editor of several pattern books.

Richard Gabriel is author of "Patterns of Software," and holds an MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. He is well known in the pattern community for introducing the writers' workshop format for pattern review.

Christa Schwanninger is a software engineer at Siemens Corporate Technology in Munich where she works on distributed applications. She has done pioneering work in patterns for compiler construction and language design.

5

Pattern Writing

Other tutorials in the patterns thread are:

Related tutorials:

for beginners (yellow):
Workshop 23: Pattern Writers' Workshop Tutorial 67R: Patterns at Work

for intermediates (green):
Tutorial 18: An Introduction to Design Patterns Tutorial 48: Designing with Patterns Tutorial 67R: Patterns at Work