General talk about software patterns

[Ralph Malph <ralph_malph AT yahoo.com>]

Thanks, Linda.

That describes me exactly.  I am working on a quite
large embedded system that was written by "senior"
engineers at a research facility with minimal if any
training in modern software design techniques.  The
software is a mess, and I'm starting to look at
patterns as a way to restructure it.  The entire code
base is written in C++ without dynamic memory
allocation, and from my initial pass through parts of
the GoF book, it looked like dynamic memory allocation
would be a requirement for using design patterns. 
I'll take a closer look at them.

Andre

--- Linda Rising 
<risingl1 AT cox.net>
 wrote:
> Hi Ralph,
> 
> Just my opinion follows, but I think that somehow a
> lot of folks got the
> wrong idea about patterns because the GoF book (love
> all those authors!)
> just included examples in C++ and Smalltalk.
> 
> Some of those folks (who got the wrong idea) were in
> the development
> community I knew best -- large, safety-critical,
> real-time, embedded, 
> systems.
> Those folks took one look at the GoF book and said,
> "Nothing in here for 
> me!"
> and dismissed it out of hand. This was unfortunate.
> 
> A design pattern has nothing to do with dynamic
> memory allocation. Sure,
> many examples or implementations show this, but, for
> example, you can use
> a Mediator in FORTRAN!!
> 
> Don't give up on design patterns, Ralph! They're an
> attempt on the part of
> well-meaning designers to share the best they know.
> We can all benefit 
> regardless
> of our particular environment.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Linda
> 
> 
> 
> Ralph Malph wrote:
> 
> >Hello all, looking at archives I'm not sure how
> >"alive" this list is, but someone out there might
> be
> >listening.
> >
> >I'm interested in people's opinions as to whether
> >design patterns would be useful if you could not
> >dynamically allocate memory.  
> >
> >I am new to patterns and find them quite
> interesting. 
> >I am considering putting in some effort to
> comprehend
> >them, but my projects at work include embedded
> >safety-critical real-time systems, and one of the
> >things that we do not use is dynamic memory
> >allocation.
> >
> >If anyone has an opinion as to whether I should
> delve
> >into patterns for this type of software (i.e. you
> have
> >considered doing them and/or done them in similar
> >systems before) I'd be interested to hear it.
> >
> >Thanks!
> >
> >
> >             
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> >_______________________________________________
> >patterns-discussion mailing list
> >patterns-discussion AT cs.uiuc.edu
>
>http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/patterns-discussion
> >
> >  
> >
> 
> -- 
> Author of "Fearless Change: patterns for introducing
> new ideas"
> http://www.cs.unca.edu/~manns/intropatterns.html
> 
> 
> 
> 


                
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