General talk about software patterns

[Kevlin Henney <kevlin AT curbralan.com>]

Narrative style and point of view is an interesting topic. Although we discussed a number of matters of pattern form in POSA5, point of view was not one of them.

Although pattern writing is different to fiction writing, in which I have some interest, it's common to note that a direct second-person voice can be a difficult one to carry off effectively, regardless of culture. The reader has to identify strongly with what is being said otherwise their sense of involvement and immersion isn't sustained. This is why lit magazines and sites rarely publish second-person stories, and why some even let you know that they're not likely to accept second-person pieces on their submission pages.

I have seen second-person pattern writing work very effectively in Jim Siddle's "Choose Your Own Architecture", which is modelled on the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Here, however, there is a more obvious reason to use the second person, because it's you, the reader, making the choices. In a more linear pattern narrative, these choices are tentative at best and the reader is more like a puppet than a decision maker.

This does not, however, automatically suggest a passive third-person point of view. A pattern can be written in a form that uses the second person but is not in the second person, where the author engages the reader and invites their consideration, i.e., "Imagine you are..." or "Consider a case where you...", rather than telling them somewhat imperatively what they are doing, i.e., "You are...". While readers may object to being moved around by a puppet master, they're fine with a conversation that invites them into a situation to explore something with the author.

The first person plural also has this collective sense, but the "we" pronoun can wear if overused. The first-person singular form has proven popular in the common user story format ("As a..., I want..."), but the reasons that it has proven popular with user stories is that they are briefer and they are read out and discussed, and when you read something out that begins with "As a..." you are immediately role playing. Patterns target a different context and a different use, so this may not translate. Reading a pattern written in the first person makes the reader an observer rather than a participant, someone watching the author express their needs and wants and mulling over options. Depending on the writing style, this may come across as self-centred and boring and collide with other cultural sensitivities. In other forms of writing and presentation there is often a caution about the overuse of "I".

In fiction the first-person works because we are with the character and learning about the character, seeing the world through their eyes and seeing a plot unfold. Although this sounds like a nice metaphor for thinking about patterns, it is at best a metaphor. A pattern is kind-of-like-a-story-sort-of, but if it is judged by the values of creative writing, it will be considered a poor story at best. Patterns are filled with necessary detail and working, which, if excluded, would make them poorer patterns.

This is not to say that the first- and direct second-person forms cannot be made to work effectively, but it may take stronger writing skills than usual to make them work — they can present an initial handicap rather than an advantage to the author.

HTH

Kevlin
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  Kevlin Henney
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