Pattern Forces Dictionary

I often find the forces section of a pattern description quite useful for determining the suitability and applicability of a pattern, especially an unfamiliar one. However, I'm often vaguely bothered by the informality and lack of uniformity of description when it comes to enumerating the pattern forces, at least in some pattern collections. Like any absence of standardization, determination of meaning is largely left to the vagaries of the reader, which inevitably leads to disagreements when a pattern is interpreted in a team environment and confusion in the mind of the newcomer.

As much as I dislike excessive formalism, I think that a forces dictionary, that would accompany the patterns themselves and cataloging and describing each force that occurs more than once in the pattern language, might be a step in the right direction. This would be especially helpful to those who are just being exposed to a new pattern collection and may also have secondary benefits such as providing hooks for taxonomic classification and other analysis. IMHO, this would generally improve the quality and consistency of the pattern forces, making them more informative, and help pattern authors and readers add more precision to their thinking. Any thoughts?

-- DionHinchcliffe

Could you provide an example?

This would also be useful for seeing the relationships/interactions between different PatternLanguages.

CategoryForces