6 Feb 2007 Patterns!! whats that?

Understanding of Pattern

Today, in the very first lesson we discussed what patterns are and where this whole idea of design patterns came from. So here we go! Basically we use patterns to make life easy and instead of reinventing a wheel over and over again, we can create pattern once and use the same pattern to solve same or similar given problem in particular context. For instance, reaching from one destination to another lets say your home to work place, there can be numerous ways to reach there but we always take the same route why? Two reasons, either because we know that we’ll reach there safely on time or because we don’t want to spend time and effort looking for direction to reach there. This idea is adapted in software development to save time and effort. Thus, a pattern is more than just a guide, outline or blueprint, in fact we can call it imitate solution for a problem in particular context.

For better understanding I will take an example from real life
Problem: Get Money
Context: Insufficient funds to pay bills, tuition fees, transport and accommodation costs. Not eligible for Bank loan, No friends are willing to lend money, physically unable to work due to medical condition. No criminal convictions so far and not interested to get any to get money. However eligible to apply for income support.

Solution: Apply for benefits