General talk about software patterns

[Ralph Johnson <johnson AT cs.uiuc.edu>]

On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 7:00 PM, Messaging Design Pattern <dsheppard2k AT yahoo.com> wrote:

Al,

I mention it because I've seen the issue/confusion come up several times: some people have the tendency of associating messaging with MOM technologies like JMS. I agree with you: a) these technologies are just one of the many applications/implementations of MDP.  b) They represent  two distinct concepts. I believe the confusion may come from the fact that messaging is ubiquitous. It is part of many technologies. Therefore these technologies might be confused with MDP. However they are just  implementations of MDP. 

The messaging Design Pattern (MDP) is intended to cover all the aspects of messaging. Your comments are appreciated.

One of the key parts of a pattern description is the examples.   If people are confusing a particular technology with the pattern then you need to improve the examples.  Use more examples; each example should be a different technology.  Choose the technologies to high-light various aspects of the pattern.  Then people would not mistake the technology for the pattern. 

-Ralph Johnson