> Declaring one of these as correct and all others to be incorrect is an oversimplification, and a logical fallacy.
I think the root of this black-and-white thinking (the is a right answer to “what pattern should I us?”) & the social disparaging of making a mistake/being wrong both stem from logocentrism in Western critical thought.
The attitude of “being right trumps any objections” is reinforced by CS grads trained by examinations where there are correct answers and doesn’t set them up for the wide world where clients don’t want the technically correct solution when it comes at the cost of delivery speed, brittleness, inflexibility, etc. This is one place where Software Engineering is superior, since it trains students in various techniques and the associated trade-offs. Imagine civil engineers & architects taking the position that, since A Pattern Language says that four square walls and a peaked roof exemplifies the timeless way of building, they insist that is the only way to construct a house.
The real value-add of patterns is giving a standard vocabulary/shorthand for discussing designs without getting bogged down in the boring technical details of the implementation. Uncritically cleaving to them as some sort of defence of quality is pure cargo culting.
I think the root of this black-and-white thinking (the is a right answer to “what pattern should I us?”) & the social disparaging of making a mistake/being wrong both stem from logocentrism in Western critical thought.
The attitude of “being right trumps any objections” is reinforced by CS grads trained by examinations where there are correct answers and doesn’t set them up for the wide world where clients don’t want the technically correct solution when it comes at the cost of delivery speed, brittleness, inflexibility, etc. This is one place where Software Engineering is superior, since it trains students in various techniques and the associated trade-offs. Imagine civil engineers & architects taking the position that, since A Pattern Language says that four square walls and a peaked roof exemplifies the timeless way of building, they insist that is the only way to construct a house.
The real value-add of patterns is giving a standard vocabulary/shorthand for discussing designs without getting bogged down in the boring technical details of the implementation. Uncritically cleaving to them as some sort of defence of quality is pure cargo culting.