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The last quarter or so of the patterns deal with interior space, but i think you might find it problematic to just apply them in isolation.

The patterns are meant to be applied in order, from largest effect with least detail, to smallest effect and highest detail.

So, for instance, if you take room that doesn't have "light on two sides"

http://www.patternlanguage.com...

there may not be much you can do, interior design wise, to save the room, without first trying some of the suggestions he has for how to deal with the lack of windows...

We probably shouldn't forget how much of this idea originated in Christopher Alexander, who posited a "pattern language" for architecture based on the usage of spaces, not the intersection of structural needs. It turned architecture and even computer programming on their heads.

... in the article (just posted) is incorrect.

The correct link is http://www.patternlanguage.com/

A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander. This book is about architecture, and is widely cited as being a primary inspiration for the GoF Design Patterns book. However, this book really demonstrates abstraction: seeing a problem from a very high level (how to distribute cities) to a very low level (room furniture).

Pretty much any book from Andrew Tanenbaum, his sparring with Linus notwithstanding. He writes very clearly on his topics, and doesn't bog down into the details of coding. In particular, his operating systems and network books are very good.

Obviously anything slightly creative is going to get nicked. The best way to demonstrate it would be to run respected literature through it. I'm sure prose-as-poetry would really get a failing grade, such as Christopher Alexander's The Timeless Way of Building or the book of Proverbs from the Bible.

when the enevitable book,discussion, etc on patterns and their use in software I remind myself of Christopher Alexander , Austrian born, Cambridge educated maths and architecture graduate.

One aspect of Alexanders work often overlooked, is that we should be making up your own patterns. Instead we look to references as cook books rather than as building blocks.

Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice. -- ChristopherAlexander

Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice. -- ChristopherAlexander

Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice. -- ChristopherAlexander

How about a "rolling bond", then:

Companies in competition in a market put-up bond, that they can retrieve after 7 years, at the beginning ( however measured, fiscal or calendar ) of this year.
Next-year, they put-up bond that they can retrieve 7 years from then, and so-on.
( based-on what, though? .. company-division-size? to contribute-to diversity and eradicate single-point-of-failure, or to suppress smaller companies and maximize the "bottom-line" for the incumbent+established special-interest-group? region-market-ownership? to cause the dominant market-players to pay more than the smaller-players? probably I'd prefer that one, but I cannot imagine it being implemented to reduce single-point-of-failure and reduce hierarchy, perhaps I'm too old...

This makes certain that they've invested recently, and that their investment means-something to them
( rather than being a big once-only write-off )...

Actually, though, I think regulated-competition is better than regulated monopoly or short-term-capital-predation ( which even competes against the context in-which its long-term existence supposedly is to be ... ), but implementing regulated-competition without simultaneously implementing open-sourcing of the regulations and the audits and the compliance is bogus, or meaningless...

"Let The Market Decide" can only work if the market is informed, and it is against gettable-profit to allow informed market, so choose whether short-term capital-profit or enduring surviving is more significant, and choose The Rules based on that: if enduring surviving is more significant, then cause the market to have good/valid, current information, freely, and don't allow the market to be 0wned by marketing BS, organized suppression ( corporate special-interest-group, political special-interest-group, ANY sig ), etc...

Contrarily, if A Quick Buck means more than enduring survival ( perhaps because you prefer the predator-lifestyle, and figure that with the knives/guns/Hummers/fuel you've stockpiled away YOU can control others -- in civil collapse ), then contribute to the brittleness, the kind-of-regulation that is going to break so you can make the world exist only as you permit:
. . . the two modes are mutually-exclusive, and I'd simply prefer a bit of honesty in people's commitment, no matter what that commitment be, so we can deal truly with each-other...

And as-for an example, published years-ago, of how others have already clued-in to the fractal-nature of The Answer, dig Christopher Alexander's -- A Pattern Language ( Daily Pattern: you get to read the book, in random-pattern-order, in 254 days, or so ).

Ach, final thought, ere:
I realized, partly because of all this ( we were downed, downtown Here[tm], here, for oh, a day or so ), that the Vertically Integrated Rules-Based Monopoly can work fine UNLESS something breaks, then much/all breaks.. the Horizontally Meshed Adaptive Diversity is costlier, when everything is going right, but it doesn't catastrophically fail the way the hierarcy/rule/conservative system does
( no I do not mean to say that the lateral/fractal/parallel system is "liberal": belonging-for-its-own-sake is "liberal", the structure I'm thinking-of, by not-merely-permitting everyone-autonomy, but requiring it simply happens to be perpendicular to conservation-of-privilege/position/rights among the established interests/entities, that's all... given enough dimensions, there are multiple "perpendiculars" to any given choice... )

Some of the city-design ideas on this Carfree.com site echo those advanced over 25 years ago in the influential book A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, Sara, Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, and others. This book details a "working alternative to our present ideas about architecture, building, and planning," with over 250 specific advisories starting at the very high overview level ("Independent Regions" instead of our current nation-states) and moving in successive stages down through town design, becoming always more specific ("Mosaic of Subcultures," "Industrial Ribbon," "Nine Percent Parking," placement of food stands and bus stops), and then to low-level details of individual building design ("Sequence of Sitting Spaces," "Light on Two Sides of Every Room," very specific construction details, and "Paving With Cracks Between the Stones").

A Pattern Language is a remarkable book, the principal influence on Stewart Brand's The Whole Earth Catalog and used by the city designers for the upcoming STAR WARS GALAXIES online game. I suspect, but don't know for sure, that its "patterns" concept influenced the current mode of "design patterns" among coders. For other examples of the book's influence, and of the theorists' current work, see their Web site, especially the overview of patterns.

Some of the city-design ideas on this Carfree.com site echo those advanced over 25 years ago in the influential book A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, Sara, Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, and others. This book details a "working alternative to our present ideas about architecture, building, and planning," with over 250 specific advisories starting at the very high overview level ("Independent Regions" instead of our current nation-states) and moving in successive stages down through town design, becoming always more specific ("Mosaic of Subcultures," "Industrial Ribbon," "Nine Percent Parking," placement of food stands and bus stops), and then to low-level details of individual building design ("Sequence of Sitting Spaces," "Light on Two Sides of Every Room," very specific construction details, and "Paving With Cracks Between the Stones").

A Pattern Language is a remarkable book, the principal influence on Stewart Brand's The Whole Earth Catalog and used by the city designers for the upcoming STAR WARS GALAXIES online game. I suspect, but don't know for sure, that its "patterns" concept influenced the current mode of "design patterns" among coders. For other examples of the book's influence, and of the theorists' current work, see their Web site, especially the overview of patterns.

Today's Pattern, keep grabbing 'em, and eventually you'll see that soooo many of the ideas here aren't human centric

and here's a Thunderhouse ( just for contrast ), and

OwnerBuilderBook.com's Construction Bargain Strategies

Cheers.

Interesting this discussion of how engineering enforces, rather than embracing improvisation/creativity...

A Pattern Language sought to destroy that enforcement pattern/assumption, decades ago...

I'd find-interesting the CS/coder equivalent to it...

You absolutely need the book on Design Patterns by Gamma et al.

Also you should check out the Antipatterns book by Brown et al. A book on "common pitfalls" and more importantly, possible resolutions.

But, if you want to deviate a bit from the technical books, and if you want to expand your understanding of design and design patterns in software, and the philosophy behind it, you might be interested in Christopher Alexander's books and writings. His books are quite old, published in the 70s.

He's an architect (of actual buildings), but his ideas apply to anything that is designed. He developed the concept of "design patterns" and the computer science world has been applying his ideas. Here is a little article about him. It's because of him that we have the following definition of pattern: a solution (set of forms or rules), which solves a problem (resolves a set of forces), in a given context (a recurring sitution). A very general idea.

Basically he was trying to come up what he calls a "Pattern Language", a high-level way to describe design patterns in urban architecture, so that people could basically design their own homes and buildings. But the end result was something more profound and philosophical. Very interesting stuff but rather touchy-feely at times. For instance when he talks about the QWAN (quality without a name, the mystical sort of "beauty" that a good design has).

He also has (or he's still working on, I'm not sure) a recent multi-volume work called "The Nature of Order". I want to read it and I bet it's a much more interesting and insightful book than Wolfram's recent giant tome about a "new kind of science", and without the hype.

Disclaimer: I'm just getting into this type of stuff so I'm not 100% aware of all the history, etc., but Alexander's the name I see everywhere.

Check out anamorph for patterns patterned ala Christopher Alexander's Pattern Language.

the best web site design keeps its audience as its primary design driver. Most people still use modems.