Patterns, computer science education, and the 20th anniversary of pattern languages of programs (PLoP)

T he release in 1994 of Design Patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software [2], by the soon-to-be famous Gang of Four (Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides), dramatically changed how we look at software development. Today, knowledge of the 23 patterns collected in this book is regarded as basic knowledge necessary for any software developer. These patterns, and the general idea of software design patterns, are included in the Computer Science or Software Engineering curricula of many institutions today. The pattern community started before the publication of this specific book and consisted of more than just these four authors. It had come together as a larger group, the Hillside Group, in 1993 to explore the idea of patterns on the applicability for software design-a concept introduced by the architect Christopher Alexander and his colleagues, based on some groundwork from Erich Gamma. In 1994, the first PLoP conference was held as a new way of sharing the knowledge about patterns, and nearly 100 people participated. Among these were quite a few whose names are nowadays also closely associated with patterns or general software engineering-names like just to name a few. And since that very first PLoP conference, a large number of patterns and pattern languages have been collected, documented and shared with the world through the conference proceedings of what has become a conference series. Furthermore, many sister conferences were established, like the EuroPLoP (which started in 1995), Viking PLoP, Asian PLoP or more recently Guru PLoP (see [3] for more information). From the very beginning, PLoP participants started thinking about the possibility of applying the pattern idea to educational design. One of this first attempts was " Patterns for Classroom Education by from Dana Anthony, published in the 2nd Proceeding of PLoP in 1995. A few years later the Peda The release of Design Patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software, by the soon-to-be famous Gang of Four (Erich Gamma, 1994 dramatically changed how we look at software development.