Pete on Pattern Languages

<p>Thom Chittom asks, "I am still very unclear about what to do with [pattern languages]; what makes them (versus something else) affective and useful?"

A pattern language collects and presents a body of wisdom from a community of practice in small, friendly pieces that are directly and easily applied to a given situation. The pieces are joined in a number of ways for easy navigation and browsing between the pieces, and to make it easier to comprehend the body of knowledge as a whole. The pieces are friendly and beautiful so they are soothing, enjoyable, and engaging for people to peruse.

(I purposely borrowed "small pieces" and "joined" from David Weinberger's pattern name, "Small Pieces Loosely Joined," which he uses for the Internet itself.)

It is similar to a cookbook, although more interconnected.

It has similarities to an encyclopedia, but favors practice and application rather than minute and comprehensive detail.

It has similarities to a fake book in music, but transmits more theme and application (knowledge and wisdom) rather than melody and rhythm (data).

It has similarities to the Talmud, but pattern languages are (or have been, at least) constructed as a smaller, constrained whole at a point in time, rather than accretively over centuries or millenia.

Pattern languages are particularly good for transmitting knowledge and wisdom of practitioners within and between communities of practice. They are good for individual or group reflection, inspiration, and application to immediate implementation.

Conversely, pattern languages are not a narrative; they do not tell a story of the application of the patterns.

(Stories -- narratives -- are the primary way people exchange plans and experiences.)

Nor are pattern languages meant to contain all of the context a student of a practice would need to learn the craft. A pattern language is a reference for practitioners or practitioners-to-be; it is not a learning guide for students.

(Practice is best learned by doing, under mentorship of an experienced practitioner, anyway.)

Publishing a pattern language as a card deck rather than a book provides additional benefits, but others here can speak to those benefits better than I can.

Pete</p>