Traditional Design Patterns

Q1: Do you think the existing Fowler’s Patterns and others are Analysis Patterns?

Q2: Do you think the existing gang of four patterns and others are Design Patterns?

Q3: Do you see any relationship between Fowler’s and Gang of Four patterns?

        And where is the fine line between them?

[4] Drawing a Fine Line between an Analysis Pattern and a Design Pattern [1, 2]

Professor Dr. M.E. Fayad, SJSU, AITG, AEEH PRESS, i-SOLE, INCs

There is really no differentiation between the work I make and the world I live in.  Doug Aitken [3]

 

In spite of very clear theoretical definitions that differentiate between analysis and design aspects of patterns, the resulting fine thin line gets increasingly blurred and invisible, and in some cases, it may not even exist at ball! Such confusion may directly lead to more pronounced confusions between analysis and design patterns. In fact, it quite hard and challenging to decide whether a given pattern is an analysis pattern or a design pattern, unless the patterns presented in a book or an article specifically states their intended usage (GoF [4], Fowler [5], etc.).

Strangely, we find strong evidence of confusion during technical lectures, discourses and presentations that pertain to Coad’s patterns [6], while many others consider them to belong to a design related realm.

On the other hand, some skilled developers, such as Fowler, believe in what is called hybrid patterns (which are a mixture of analysis and design) [Fowler’s column]; however, it becomes very important and critical that they state in clear terms that they are proposing hybrid patterns. For an example, almost all analysis patterns proposed by Fowler in [5], are either design or hybrid patterns, or not pure analysis patterns as the book’s title suggests in a clear term!

References

[1] M.E. Fayad. Stable Design Patterns (SDPs) (BASE)” Aeeh Press, Inc, San Jose, CA. December 2024.

[2] M. E. Fayad. “Stable Design Patterns for Software and Systems” Boca Raton, FL: Auerbach Publications, Taylor & Francis Catalog #: K24656, September 2017. ISBN-13: 978-1-4987-0330-7

[3] Doug Aitken (born 1968) is an American multidisciplinary artist. Aitken’s body of work ranges from photography, print media, sculpture, and architectural, Wiki

[4] Gamma, E. et al., Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, New York, 1995.

[5] Fowler, M. Analysis Patterns: Reusable Object Models, Addison-Wesley, 1997.
[6] Coad. P., North D., and Mayfield, M. Object Models: Strategies, Patterns, & Applications, Second Edition, Yourdon Press, 1997.