[nicbou]

Once it's finished, you'll want to make changes to it. Over time, you will see what makes changes easier or harder. Then the literature on patterns will really click.

If you read about patterns too early, they don't "click", but rather become something you overprescribe without really thinking why. We call it design patternitis.

I have overengineered far more code than I have hacked together. Now I'm a bit more cautious about it.

Templates are a good middle ground. They give you a good mold for your application, and inform you about best practices that you might not think about.

Just don't sweat it too much. If software solves problems, it does its job.