Length: 5 minutes

The "design patterns" movement in software claims to have been inspired by the works of architect Christopher Alexander. But an examination of Alexander's books reveals that he was actually talking about something much more interesting.

Readers are cautioned that these slides were not originally intended for distribution on the web; they were written to accompany a five minute long talk given at Yet Another Perl Conference. They should not, therefore, be taken as a complete or well-reasoned presentation of my thoughts on this matter.

1. "Design Patterns" Aren't
2. Design Patterns
3. What is a Pattern?
4. For Example: The iterator Pattern
5. Is this really "a recurring design problem"?
6. Is this really "a recurring design problem"?
7. The Outcome?
8. Christopher Alexander
9. What's It About?
10. Alexander's Conundrum
11. Pattern Languages
12. Patterns vs. "Patterns"
13. We're Missing Out

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