On Thu, 14 Feb 2002, Matthew Peter Lyon wrote:

> hey, leading off this... a question for the group... are the ways in
> programming to solve problems / situations called 'design patterns' ?

Well, sorta... 'design patterns' refers to a specific way of analyisng
software design.  It actually comes from the theories of an architect
named Christopher Alexander
(http://www.math.utsa.edu/sphere/salingar/Chris.text.html).  These ideas
were applied to a variety of things, like analyzing oriental carpet
design, and object-oriented software design.

There are many different ways of looking at software design and solving
problems with them.  There's a lot you can learn in, say a CompSci
curriculum, and a lot also comes from experience and playing with
structures and algorithms people have worked before.  These techniques
can't tell you how to program, but how to think about programming.  There
are tons of books out there, some good for the budding programmer, some at
the college CS level.

One book I do recommend taking a look at is from our old friends Brian
Kernighan & Robert Pike, entitled _The Practice of Programming_.  While
they specifically look at C the most int terms of exmaples, the pricniples
they touch apply to any language (and yes, they do a little Perl).  They
look at things like top-level design, debugging techniques, testing,
style, etc.

-- Brett
                                          http://www.chapelperilous.net/
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