General talk about software patterns

[Brian Marick <marick AT testing.com>]

The Pattern Languages of Programs conference has traditionally been
about helping pattern authors improve the written expression of their
patterns. This year is no exception. Roughly two-thirds of each day
will be devoted to writers' workshops. In a writers' workshop, a group
of people gather to discuss a pattern while the author listens. The
author learns what readers understand or do not understand about a
particular pattern, while the whole group deepens their understanding
of patterns in general.
<http://www.cs.wustl.edu/%7Eschmidt/writersworkshop.html>

This PLoP will also have afternoon and evening activities targeted at
pre-authors, non-authors, and just plain pattern users. These
activities will be diverse, and many of them will be organized at the
conference. We will certainly include these:

- a roundtable with Ralph Johnson. The topic: improving the next
  version of _Design Patterns_.

- "pattern mining", in which domain experts and pattern experts will
  sit down to identify and discuss some patterns of a specific
  domain.

- opportunities to experiment with the use of patterns, including
  especially how patterns arise through the refactoring required when
  adding features to code. (So bring your laptop!)

And, perhaps as important, they will include the chance to take long
walks with genuinely interesting thinkers.
<http://jerry.cs.uiuc.edu/~plop/plop2003/activities.html>

PLoP Main page:
<http://jerry.cs.uiuc.edu/~plop/plop2003/>

-----
Brian Marick
Consulting, training, contracting, and research
Focused on the intersection of testing, programming, and design
marick AT testing.com,
 
marick AT visibleworkings.com
www.testing.com, www.visibleworkings.com

I'm program chair or cohost of these events:
PLoP: <http://jerry.cs.uiuc.edu/~plop/plop2003/>
FIT Fest: <http://fitnesse.org/XpFitFest.FrontPage>
Please join me.