TITLE

Patterns of Software. Tales from the Software Community.

AUTHOR(S) SURNAME, FORENAME

Gabriel, Richard P

Places & Countries of PUBLISHERS    YEAR
Publication

New York, NY, USA        Oxford University Press    1996

PAGES    ISBN        BINDING    PRICE

xx+235    0-19-510269-X    Hbk    £18.99

We write a lot of these reviews. Occasionally we see a book we would like to read. Here is one at the top of that list. The author is a thinker. He wishes programs to be better but has first of all to devine what is meant by better. He has some guidance from Christopher Alexander, an architect who has spent thirty years seeking to design better buildings, also not knowing what was meant by better. Our interpretation in mathematical terms is contentment when all the things (Gabriel's objects) that go to make up you are at the peak of their normal frequency distribution. But the creation has to be judged in the eyes of others and it is the insight into that topic that may well impel us to read this book. What thinkers can be certain about is that computers and their programs will not be integrated into human environment in the way, say, the countryside is, until we have found out how to achieve this better contentment or whatever it is.
            17.11.96    4535

Converted using Wp2Html from Andrew Scriven. Copyright Cliff Dilloway on the last date above. The Authors Moral Rights are asserted