ANN: design patterns essay

[Xah Lee]

Dear all,

i have written an opinionated essay on Design Patterns.

It is located here:
http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/w...ware_suck.html

or here:

-- begin opinionated --

Date: 2 Dec 2001 14:17:38 -0800

Dear programers,

i started to give my views on patterns and XP in this thread, then it
got ramified by someone into a hogwash discussion that revolves around
attacking the word "mathematics".

I like to make a coherent summary of my views on the Design Patterns
and eXtreme Programing stuff.

In my previous articles

| Message-ID: B826DEE2.489D%xah@best.com
| Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 01:46:13 GMT
| Subject: Re: Design patterns for Lisp

and other posts posted here recently, their contents are summarized
and expanded as follows:

(1) Patterns and XP are wishy-washy, unscientific, unproven, and
without any mathematical basis.

(2) there are enough applied mathematics in computer science for a
life-time of study.

(3) The programers in computing industry lacks sufficient training.
They lack sufficient computer science background, lack mastery of
their tools (languages, protocols etc.), and their knowledge of their
domain/field are often poor.

(4) It is extremely easy and common for non-qualified people to become
a software professional, who will gradually churn out significant
quantity of codes. (this is in contrast with other engineering
disciplines. A desk-top computer is sufficient to send a interested
laymen into software industry.)

(5) Software engineering is ten thousand times easier than physical
engineering such as bridge, airplane, tunnel, train, ship... building.

(6) computer do not make mistakes, people do, and sloppiness is a
common attitude in software industry.

(7) software licenses are irresponsible. The vast majority of software
license agreements contains clauses that don't guarantee it works.

--

The quality of software depends on primarily of two aspects:

* Programer's mastery of the tools. (programing language, protocols,
operating system ...)

* Programer's expertise/knowledge of his field/domain.

Programers should master their tools. Know every detail of their
language well. Then, programer should strive to accumulate knowledge
of their respective domain.

When a programer masters his tools and domain expertise, he obtains
the expertise any Design Pattern tries to describe. Design Patterns is
a snake oil. Icing on the cake. Fluff. Wishful thinking. Slouch's
drug. Idiot's placebo. And that's not all.

Design Patterns is the opium of computing industry. From an addicted
individual or company, it may have improved a code or helped a team.
But on the whole, it hinders the propagation of quality languages. It
stops advancements of language design. It reduces the awareness of
real education needs like mastering languages and domain expertise. It
is a fucking spoon-feeding formula designed to retard the mundane and
drug the smart. It curbs creation ability. It is a plague, a bad-ass
fashion phenomenon; a jargon-riding dimwit-pleasing epidemic.

For the record, the "Gang of Four" mentioned in this thread who wrote
the _Design Patterns_ book are:

Erich Gamma <-- fucking ass one
Richard Helm <-- fucking ass two
Ralph Johnson <-- fucking ass too
John Vlissides <-- fucking ass also

These people will be remembered as criminals in the computing history,
along with Larry Wall and those fucking jackasses who distributed
their home work now known as Unix. [criminals here is defined as those
who bring damages to society, including hampering progress in a
massive scale.]

--

I have mentioned above that software engineering is significantly
easier then bridge engineering. Let's drill on this a bit.

When we say A is easier then B, we have to define what we mean by
"easier". Before we can say what we mean by "easier", we need to
understand the nature A and B comparably. We can consider Software
Writing vs Bridge Building. This would be on easy one. We can also
consider Software Engineering vs Bridge Engineering. This will be a
bit difficult. We'll need to further discuss what does "engineering"
really encompasses here. Coming up with a good definition can be quite
involved. Instead of drilling on a sensible definition, I'll simply
mention a few comparisons of things in software engineering and bride
engineering below. The following items will be somewhat hodgepodge.

* Material cost.

* Size of team.

* Cost of raising (educating/training) engineers.

* The nature involved.

In building bridges, there are lots of unknown factors. There's wind,
storm, flood, earthquake all of which we cannot fully control, and can
only predict in a limited way. It will involve many science
disciplines. geo-science, physics, aerodynamics. Software building
requires much lesser disciplines, and significantly much less people.

Build bridges is costly. It can only be done once, and the one time
must be right. It cannot go by trial-and-error. Software building on
the other hand, can trial-and-error all the way. It's essentially
costless.

The essence of computers can be likened to an abacus. You push the
beads and you readout the values. There are no chance events. No storm
or flood to worry about. The information are one hundred percent known
to you, and you control it one hundred percent one hundred percent of
the time.

Which one is ten thousand times easier do you think? Is it bridge
engineering, or software engineering?

--

In the above, i have touched on the problem of software licenses.
Namely, they outright disclaims the functionality of the software.

I propose that we raise an awareness of this situation, so that the
public (consumer) will start to demand more responsible software
(licenses).

.... my time's up. Next time when i have some time, reminds me to write
on WHY software industry is the way it is, and why the solution is to
first raise the awareness of irresponsible licenses. This should be
the last message in this episode.

Goodbye my love, cum all over your face.

Xah
xah@xahlee.org
http://xahlee.org/PageTwo_dir/more.html


Feast your eyes. Note the ominous all-caps.

-----------------------------------
Excerpt of License agreement from Mac OS 9:

4. Disclaimer of Warranty on Apple Software. You expressly
acknowledge and agree that use of the Apple Software is at your sole
risk. The Apple Software is provided "AS IS" and without warranty of
any kind and Apple and Apple's licensor(s) (for the purposes of
provisions 4 and 5, Apple and Apple's licensor(s) shall be
collectively referred to as "Apple") EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES
AND/OR CONDITIONS, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND/OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY OR
SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. APPLE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT
THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE APPLE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR
REQUIREMENTS, OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE WILL BE
UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DEFECTS IN THE APPLE SOFTWARE
WILL BE CORRECTED. FURTHERMORE, APPLE DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY
REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE
APPLE SOFTWARE OR RELATED DOCUMENTATION IN TERMS OF THEIR CORRECTNESS,
ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION
OR ADVICE GIVEN BY APPLE OR AN APPLE AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE SHALL
CREATE A WARRANTY OR IN ANY WAY INCREASE THE SCOPE OF THIS WARRANTY.
SHOULD THE APPLE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU (AND NOT APPLE OR AN
APPLE AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE) ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL
NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT
ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY
NOT APPLY TO YOU. THE TERMS OF THIS DISCLAIMER DO NOT AFFECT OR
PREJUDICE THE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF A CONSUMER ACQUIRING APPLE PRODUCTS
OTHERWISE THAN IN THE COURSE OF A BUSINESS, NEITHER DO THEY LIMIT OR
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-----------------------------------
GNU General License, excerpt:

NO WARRANTY

11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO
WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR
OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE
PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME
THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN
WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY
AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU
FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR
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PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING
RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A
FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF
SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGES.


-----------------------------------
END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS 98, excerpt:

LIMITED WARRANTY

LIMITED WARRANTY.
Microsoft warrants that (a) the SOFTWARE PRODUCT will perform
substantially in accordance with the accompanying written materials
for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of receipt, and (b) any
Support Services provided by Microsoft shall be substantially as
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APPLY TO YOU.
-- end of quote --

comments welcome.

Xah
xahlee.org
http://xahlee.org/PageTwo_dir/more.html

[john]

bullshit