[philbarr]

What an obscure load of tosh. I might as well say that all the maths-nerds don't really know how to program because they don't understand design patterns properly, as evidenced by them hating on it all the time.

But of course, I wouldn't say that because I have absolutely no evidence and it would be based purely on my close-mindedness and preconceptions. (I also wouldn't say it because I have no hatred towards "maths-nerds" !)

And also - when has a pattern ever been used to abstract away a maths problem? I certainly haven't seen it!

Understanding patterns, but more importantly, design principles, help when writing code because of the limitations of the language (any language) in properly describing the problem domain. If those principles lead to the creation of patterns which are then given names and taught to the masses, I cannot understand how learning about them would make someone a worse programmer.

[AnimalMuppet]

I agree with you in general. But learning the design patterns superficially, and applying them where they don't really fit, can in fact make someone a worse programmer. Hopefully they'll grow out of it, so the "damage" is part of the student phase, but some probably do get stuck there and never progress.

[anko]

For me, design patterns are a good thing. If it's a phase, I'd prefer people to be stuck there rather than never learn them.

My reasoning is that using a pattern is like documentation. If I see a pattern in some code, i barely have to read the code. Code is hard enough to read as it is, patterns make it easier.

I've heard various figures over the years but one that i think is a decent estimate is that maintenance is 80% of the SDLC. That means reading a crapload of code. Any time you can reduce the burden is a good thing.

It's true that a lot of GoF's design patterns are particular to languages like java and c#, and not relevant to dynamic languages especially.

I think your idea about applying design patterns where they don't fit isn't really the source of the problem. Some developers aren't good at understanding the problem they are faced with, so they do the wrong thing. That isn't anything to do with applying or not applying design patterns - it's a different discussion altogether.