Meta Patterns

Meta-Patterns would be patterns about making patterns. Here are some I've heard discussed...

RalphJohnson offered this caution to the PatternsList ...

I bet Rich and Waters are smarter then us, but they got seduced into going meta, which is the CS equivalent of "the dark side of the force". CS folks are always trying to build tools for something before they understand it. They are always trying to solve abstract problems before being able to solve the concrete ones. Abstractions are great, but you have to have experience with the concrete before you can understand them, let alone invent them. That is why we should focus on understanding particular patterns before making a theory for patterns in general.

Computer Science is the discipline that believes all problems can be solved with one more layer of indirection. -- DennisDeBruler?

In programming, everything we do is a special case of something more general - and often we know it too quickly. -- AlanPerlis in EpigramsInProgramming

Metapatterns is a phrase first used in print by GregoryBateson. It is also a MetaPatternsBook by TylerVolk about the patterns he finds in Nature. As you expand the scope, you're getting into cybernetics and philosophy.

CategoryPattern