[hyggetrold]

I really wanted to read the work about carpets also and even found a copy available online. The price was massive sticker shock however and I couldn't justify buying it.

I love that OOPSLA lecture, incidentally. In my view the software industry really missed the mark on what Alexander was outlining there.

[dorian]

Yeah, it was about a thousand bucks the last time I checked and probably more now that he's passed. Why I ultimately didn't feel too bad about not reading it was because from what I understand, its contents are ostensibly mostly covered in Nature of Order. Same goes for Linz Café. I am, however, glad I read The Mary Rose Museum because it has a contract in it (excerpted in Nature of Order) that inspired me to write my own service contract "from scratch" (for some value of the term).

As for the software industry, it really latched on to patterns because (and Alexander himself nails it) they offer both a format and a formula for exchanging ideas that are either too ephemeral to write into a library, or otherwise transcend particular languages/frameworks. A lot of the really important insights though appear to have been lost in the process. (I have the Gang of Four book and a Fowler book, and have found neither to be especially useful.)

[hyggetrold]

Same - when I saw the carpet book for sale it was over a thousand. Looks like a beautiful book but that is a lot of money.

Have you visited any of Alexander's buildings? I still need to get out and see some.

I saw a lecture from Kent Beck (a huge proponent of Alexander as you probably well know) and he talks about going to the University of Oregon and being inspired by the architecture. As the story goes, he then learned about Alexander but was too poor a college student to afford any of the books. So he read Timeless Way and Pattern Language standing at the shelf in the student bookstore. I like that story because I feel it illustrates the power of Alexander's work - if it grabs you, then it really grabs you.

[dorian]

Haven't visited any because the majority are private residences (although this one in Berkeley-ish has been on and off the market https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/700-Hillside-Ave-Albany-C... ). The only ones you can just go to are West Dean in the UK and Eishin just outside Tokyo (which IIRC you need an appointment for). I suppose there's also the Fresno farmer's market but that's barely a building.

(You may also be able to go to the Mexicali compound which is apparently still standing: https://maps.app.goo.gl/UkwKqYDrGBcfQLnd6 but don't know what the story is with it.)