See JohannesGijsbers for more on me, but I'm subscribed to this page, so leave me messages here.

On vacation for a while now.

Email: jlgijsbers at planet dot nl

So, if we had a nice pattern repository wiki, we could write about decorate-sort-undecorate there and link to it... {;D}= -- LionKimbro 2003-11-21 22:18:39

PortlandPatternRepository? -- JohannesGijsbers

Two thoughts:

• I'd like a focused design patterns community.

• I'd like a block patterns community.

I think that there is a type of pattern that people use within a procedure.

For an example of a basic one, there is the ForLoop.

But there are also others, like FirstTimeSeperate versus FirstTimeIntegrated.

That is, do you:

   1 first_time_a()
   2 always_b()
   3 first_time_c()
   4 always_d()
   5 
   6 while condition:
   7   always_b()
   8   always_d()

...or do you...

   1 first=1
   2 
   3 while condition:
   4     if first: first_time_a()
   5     always_b()
   6     if first: first_time_c()
   7     always_d()
   8     first=0

Surely, there are advantages to each one, no?

I taught beginning programmers for 2 years. I found that I didn't have words for a lot of things that I was trying to explain to them. Now I think I have the word for it: a "block pattern."

I think a site of block patterns would be interesting, and very beneficial for study by beginners.

DecorateSortUndecorate may be a block pattern. But maybe not- maybe it's an algorithmic pattern. But are they that different?

Speaking of algorithms- we need multiple algorithms wiki. {:)}=

Good talking with you. Feel free to delete whenever you like.

-- LionKimbro 2003-11-22 04:45:20

What do you mean with a block pattern? It seems like another level of Scope (as in the DesignPatternsBook). -- JohannesGijsbers

As for DP: Yes, it is a matter of scope.

My design patterns book isn't about how you arrange your lines and variables within a function. It's about how you arrange your collection of classes, objects. I want "block design patterns," to give my students who are just trying to figure out how to write a function.

Like: "NestedLoops," to do things like cycling over lists of lists, and hitting all of them.

I've been programming since I was 7 years old. When I took CS in college, I got to watch people smarter than I am struggle with how to calculate out a multiplication table, or follow two pointers in a row.

I don't think they're stupid. I think that I just figured out, through trial and error, in my first years of programming, how to make these basic structures.

It'd be nice to have a systematic way to teach those basic "block" patterns. (I'm just making up the term.)

-- LionKimbro

I see what you're getting at. How about "ProceduralPatterns", with block patterns being one of the scopes involved. The other scope would probably be about splitting things up into functions. -- JohannesGijsbers

Yes, yes, that's exactly it. Though I don't think it should pollute this wiki. -- LionKimbro

Johannes, Thanks for the message. I have read the spelling conventions. What bothered me was that you had used Wiki sometimes and wiki sometimes. I will go back to FrontPage and may the remaining cases consistent to the spelling conventions if that is ok. It looks like I made them consistent the wrong way,. ;o) --AndrewCates

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