Patterns of software
by Richard P. Gabriel · first published 1996
78% recommend18% neutral5% critical
Why HN recommends it
Essays that bring Christopher Alexander's pattern thinking to software, arguing GoF misses its point and that inheritance isn't reuse. Also covers habitability, piecemeal growth and the Lucid Lisp story; free as a PDF.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In Patterns of Software, the respected software pioneer and computer scientist, Richard P. Gabriel, gives us an informative inside look at the world of software design and computer programming and the businesses that surround them. In this wide-ranging volume, Gabriel discusses such topics as what makes a successful programming language, how the rest of the world looks at and responds to the work of computer scientists, how he first became involved in computer programming and software development, what makes a successful software business, and why his own company, Lucid, failed in 1994, ten ye
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…though my primary exposure has been through Emacs Lisp - so shoot me). A really great book that helps you get appreciate the concepts in Lisp, without really talking about Lisp directly too much, is "Patterns of Software" by Peter Gabriel. http://amzn.to/TxDKGG I found it to be a very enlightening read. Definitely a book you have to sink into with plenty of time and quiet.
on “The Nature of Lisp” ↗…Young, Moti Yung This is way out of my league in terms of cryptography, but this fascinated me early in my career, and led me to implement one or the other algorithm. Very prescient in many ways. - Patterns of Software - Richard Gabriel Not directly about computing, but I got a lot of deep insights from this book. It also brought me to the next book: - Notes on the synthesis of form - Christopher Alexander This is…
on “Quirky computing books” ↗…everywhere in software, whether we call them that or not. Game loops, event servers, compilers, map/filter, microkernels, stdin transformers, for loops over arrays, etc etc etc. Richard P. Gabriel's book Patterns of Software is freely available and goes into the history and meaning of patterns. Alexander himself wrote a preface that's worth reading on its own.
on “Software Design Patterns Are Not Goals, They Are Tools” ↗Start with the "classics" like "mystical man month" (Brooks) for example, then get many of the books by Tom de Marco and possibly read Richard Gabriel's "Patterns of Software". The book about the "Chandler" project (forgot it's title) is also a particular good read. Those two in particular are interesting reads about why things fail. Go on to reading the Toyota management…
on “Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?” ↗Christopher Alexander's books: https://archive.org/details/TheTimelessWayOfBuilding https://archive.org/details/APatternLanguage It's also worth reading Patterns of Software by Richard Gabriel: http://www.dreamsongs.com/Files/PatternsOfSoftware.pdf who draws heavily on Alexander's work.
on ““Design Patterns” Aren't (2002)” ↗I have read several different takes on "Worse Is Better" on the Web, as well as Gabriel's book, Patterns of Software, and generally think it is a good way of developing useful software. It is too bad though that he didn't give it another name; the bad part about the phrase is how lazy or careless programmers use it…
on “Worse is Better” ↗…the value of time. Learn when to take a shortcut, and how to isolate "shortcut code" into a module that can be replaced or improved if needed. If you're interested in design patterns, read Gabriel's "Patterns of Software" -- http://dreamsongs.net/Files/PatternsOfSoftware.pdf -- for a more nuanced view than most courses and articles. If you're into OO design, read Eric Evans's "Domain-Driven Design," and take heed when…
on “What should a self-taught programmer study?” ↗This is by Richard Gabriel, who coined "worse is better" (https://www.dreamsongs.com/RiseOfWorseIsBetter.html). He's also the author of Patterns of Software (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13799628). Incidentally I just finished reading it and found it quite fascinating.
on “Performance and Evaluation of Lisp Systems (1985) [pdf]” ↗Given Richard Gabriel is the author of the long essay "Worse is Better" and the wonderful book Patterns of Software (which you should all read), and given it's out of context, I have to read this as both tongue-in-cheek and heartfelt. Play "Jeopardy" - what is the question he's answering, and why is he answering it…
on “'My team will be able to program circles around everyone else' (2002)” ↗…"programming/technical books".) - GEB - SICP - anything by Paul Auster or Hermann Hesse - most Haruki Murakami, especially "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" - Joan Didion, "Where I Was From" - Richard P. Gabriel, "Patterns of Software" - Durbin, Eddy, Krogh, and Mitchison, "Biological Sequence Analysis" - Italo Calvino, "if on a winter's night a traveller"
on “Ask YC: favorite books” ↗…Gabriel's paper, colloquially known as the "Worse is Better" paper, is a must read. I do agree that it's worthwhile reading for programmers at large. If you enjoy it, I also highly recommend Gabriel's book "Patterns of Software" (available in PDF from his website). (Note: although this book does have something to do with the "patterns movement", Gabriel is pretty much a contrarian to the what you might call the "Gang of Four"…
on “Papers Every Programmer Should Read” ↗Christopher Alexander also wrote the introduction to Patterns of Software (http://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Software-Tales-Community/dp/0...). It's a great book, and I've unfortunately only had the time to read a few of the essays. It's available online as a PDF from http://www.dreamsongs.org/Files/PatternsOfSoftware.pdf.
on “Do You See a Pattern?” ↗…to fall in love with language, learn to think logically, and come to terms with classical rhetoric. Dick Gabriel is a master of all three. Read his essays at http://www.dreamsongs.com. Read his book Patterns of Software book, inspired by the work of Christopher Alexander.
on “Richard P. Gabriel's Writing Writing” ↗The works of Christopher Alexander are worth reading for many fields including computer systems. Along with them, you might find Richard Gabriel's Patterns of Software: Tales from Software Community, now out of print, of interest. There is a Kindle electronic edition: http://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Software-Tales-Community-eboo...
on “The pattern technology of christopher alexander” ↗…contributions of the design patterns community for inspiration, people who have long strived to understand what Christopher Alexander's QWAN ("quality without a name") means to software. A good example is Patterns of Software [1], but also a lot of the C2 wiki has this spirit. Less off-the-wall than Why, but still trying to get at the soul of software. 1. http://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Software-Tales-Community/dp/0... 2.…
on “_why's complete printer spool as one book [pdf]” ↗