I received this from a friend via email and I thought it was a very interesting comment. My thoughts on patterns has changed lately, but I still think they are valuable. Here’s the email:

I am unfortunately unable to make it to tonight’s CJUG so I just wanted to pass along some information. Since we’re all about reusable patterns, I found it odd that you didn’t mention Reactor or other related communications patterns in your Dr. Dobb’s article. I’ve attached some references for you on these patterns (along with the link http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/patterns-ace.html )

Take care!

The attachments that came along are inline with the link given, so I won’t post them here. Here’s my response:

I have an interesting interaction with patterns. I use them all the time, but I rarely put a name to the face. I’ve written a few articles in the past and done a number of open source projects and my use of patterns in class naming, documentation and my writing is sporadic at best. It seems as though over time my staying up-to-date and well informed about patterns has dwindled and my communication about patterns has also tapered off. However, my use of patterns seems to be as consistent if not better as time progresses. I probably should be better at communicating and documenting my patterns considering that it helps people who haven’t encountered certain concepts more easily understand and get up to speed on things.