Patterns Of Patterns

[Moved from SymmetricalReference]

I know the pattern community resists the idea of patterns-of-patterns (is there a PatternsOfPatterns pattern?), but it seems to me that this is example is firstly illustrative of why we want PatternsOfPatterns, and secondly is demonstrates that the idea of a "pattern" is richer than some of the ideas it supplants.

I'm reminded of... "Each pattern then, depends both on the smaller patterns it contains, and on the larger patterns within which it is contained... Each pattern sits at the center of a network of connections which connect it to certain other patterns that help to complete it... And it is the network of these connections between patterns which creates the language... In this network, the links between the patterns are almost as much a part of the language as the patterns themselves." -- ChristopherAlexander in TheTimelessWayOfBuilding (pp 312-314)

-- TomStambaugh

I know the pattern community resists the idea of patterns-of-patterns

No they don't. Where did you get that impression? Rest assured its not at all true. Not only has the patterns community not resisted the idea of PatternsOfPatterns but most of the ones I know have been trying to encourage it and foster it more and more over time. It's the first step along the journey from individual patterns, to whole PatternLanguages.

One of the important ideas behind a PatternLanguage is that it is a kind of PatternOfPatterns where the problem and context are very broad and the solution consists of how the participant patterns collaborate in a piecemeal fashion to grow an overall architecture. JohnVlissides has been writing of CompoundPatterns in PatternHatching and the CppReport for over a year now. And DirkRiehle was writing about CompositeDesignPatterns before that. -- BradAppleton