General talk about software patterns

[Mary Lynn Manns <manns AT unca.edu>]

 

 

Use of "you" may be more likely to allow the pattern to sound like it can actually be used by the reader. In contrast, the use of "I" may make it sound like it is something the pattern author did and is just telling a story.

IMHO,

Mary Lynn

 

 

 

==

On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 1:39 PM, Joseph W. Yoder <joe AT joeyoder.com> wrote:

A lot depends on what is being communicated.  Do "I" as a writer mean "we" or "i".  Sometimes "we" weakens it because "I" don't want to take responsibility.  Sometimes "we" strengthens it.  Good writing and communicating clearly is hard, but rewarding when "we" get it right :-).

Also, for me a lot depends upon my audience.  For example, we had some patterns written and presented at our last PLoP that were from Japan.  You could tell that the writing style was in the form that fit that culture.  Now, if that is their intended audience then I would say they did a great job.  However, if they want it their patterns to be used and real by other cultures, they should consider some changes to the writing style.

--joe

On 2/19/2013 10:38 AM, Joseph Bergin wrote:

Yes, a big problem, but hard to tackle. Shepherding and workshopping do a pretty good job, since many of the participants are from around the world. Perhaps those giving feedback should be sure to mention this when noticed. I just did this while shepherding a paper for guru-plop. In this case it was just the language used, but the advice itself, can be strongly culturally dependent.

One person I know rejected Alexander altogether believing that they were just building "California-Mediteranian architecture."

Joe

On Feb 19, 2013, at 9:30 AM, Christian Köppe wrote:

I personally think that this is indeed one of the overlooked issues in most published patterns; they (authors and patterns) assume that they are culture-independent.

---
Joseph Bergin, Professor Emeritus in Residence
Pace University, Computer Science, One Pace Plaza, NY NY 10038
EMAIL jbergin AT pace.edu
HOMEPAGE http://csis.pace.edu/~bergin/
---
        you shall above all things be glad and young.
        For if you’re young, whatever life you wear
       
        it will become you;and if you are glad
        whatever’s living will yourself become

                - - e. e. cummings










_______________________________________________
patterns-discussion mailing list
patterns-discussion AT cs.uiuc.edu
http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/patterns-discussion

--
========
Joseph W. Yoder        joe AT refactory.com      http://www.joeyoder.com
The Refactory Inc   http://www.refactory.com    Phone: (217) 344-4847
7 Florida Drive, Urbana, IL  61801 USA          Fax:   (217) 384-4458

_______________________________________________
patterns-discussion mailing list
patterns-discussion AT cs.uiuc.edu
http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/patterns-discussion

-- 

Mary Lynn Manns, PhD
University of North Carolina at Asheville
http://www.cs.unca.edu/~manns