Pre Tutorial Conceptions

When people are first introduced to Patterns in a more formal manner (such as a tutorial or lecture), I wonder what preconceptions they arrive with and whether Patterns turn out to be much different than what they expected.

When I have asked some PatternNovices? what they think about Patterns, I get answers like these:

• Oh yeah, I saw the GoF book... It's just a way to catalog designs, right?
• Isn't that a new way of doing Object Oriented Design?
• Sounds like forcing structure on the way people document stuff.
• I am thinking about writing a tool to generate code from Patterns...
• Isn't that the stuff that makes it easier to design _______ ?

Are these people victims of (misleading) PatternHype ? When will the inevitable PatternBacklash (and I don't mean PatternSkepticism) begin?

-- ToddCoram

---

Add any Pattern preconceptions you have encountered here: