Design Patterns and Language Design

Joseph Gil and David H. Lorenz

The Faculty of Computer Science,
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,
Technion City, Haifa 32000, Israel
{yogi|david}@CS.Technion.AC.IL

Abstract. Despite many similarities, there are important differences between design patterns and programming language mechanisms. Nevertheless, we can classify patterns in terms of how far they are from becoming actual language features. Treating patterns as mechanisms that are candidates for being language features--rather than treating them as what they are meant to be--can help demystify them.

Vol. 31, No. 3, March 1998