Design Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture (A System of Patterns) [Volume 1-2001-Not the original book-450 pages-Buschmann-Meunier-Rohnert-Sommerlad-Stal]

A reprint of a classic book.



"This is a book about patterns for software architecture or simply patterns. Patterns have been drawing considerable attention over recent years: workshops, tutorials, forums for electronic discussion, papers in journals and whole books are being devoted to patterns. The pattern community has even started its own conference. All this enthusiastic discussion of patterns makes them seem as if they are the climax of the 'object wave'.



What is so excitlng about patterns? It is probably the fact that they constitute a 'grass roots' effort to build on the collective experience of skilled designers and software engineers. Such experts already have solutions to many recurring design problems. Patterns capture these proven solutions in an easily-available and hopefully, well-written

form.



Our approach is slightly different to the Gang-of-Four, though there are many similarities and some overlaps. The GoF book concentrates on design-level patterns, whereas our patterns span several levels of abstraction. These range from high-level architectural patters through design patterns to low-level idioms. We also focus on issues other than object-orientation and try to incorporate the latest insights into pattern description techniques.



Our overall goal is to use patterns to help in the wider context of software architecture. We call this approach pattern-oriented software architecture. We talk about pattern systems, in which patterns are not just collected into a heterogeneous container but are also grouped according to appropriate criteria. The GoF book started this categorization effort by dividing patterns into 'creational', 'structural' and 'behavioral' groupings. We try to take the next step by grouping patterns according to finergrained crlteria such as interactive and adaptable systems, organization of work, communication and access control."