Re: [9fans] don't shoot me

["Douglas A. Gwyn" <DAGwyn@null.net>]

boyd, rounin wrote:
> if you need a pattern, go knit something.
> if you need code, just code it.

I don't think it has much to do with XML, but "design patterns"
are a genuine advancement in the field of software engineering,
applicable only with support from object-oriented languages,
in the case of C++ using templates to implement the patterns.

The idea, which is a recurring theme in software engineering,
is to leverage the programmer's efforts by enabling more
applications for the same amount of work.  Just as OO
technology used properly avoids having to enter similar code
details for multiple objects with similar properties, so
design patterns used properly avoids having to create similar
code scaffolding (higher-level control logic) to implement
similar functionality for different unrelated object classes.

If you haven't read the book by Gamma et al. you should do so.

Of course, you don't need industrial-strength tools if you're
just tinkering, but still you should appreciate their value.