TITLE: Sure, In the End, It's Just Objects and Functions
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: November 25, 2017  7:52 AM
DESC: 
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BODY:
 After implementing the patterns from James Noble's
<A HREF="http://www.laputan.org/pub/patterns/noble/noble.pdf">
   Arguments and Results</A>,
 Gregory Brown
<A HREF="https://practicingruby.com/articles/arguments-and-results-1">
   reflects</A>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 After taking a look at the finished <TT>Turtle</TT> object, I
 did wonder a little bit about whether the idea of a curried
 object in Ruby is nothing more than an ordinary object making
 use of object composition.  However, because the name of the
 pattern is helpful for describing the intent of this sort of
 object in a succinct way, it may be a good label for us to
 use when discussing the merits of different design options.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

 In the end it is, indeed, all just objects, or functions, or
 whatever the primitives structures are in your programming
 style <EM>du jour</EM>.  The value of design patterns in any
 styles lies in teaching us stereotypical patterns of usage,
 the web of objects or functions we might not have thought of
 in the course of design.  Once we know about the patterns,
 the names become a valuable part of the vocabulary we use to
 talk about design.

 I know that Brown's blog entry is six years old, that Noble's
 paper is seventeen, and that talking about design patterns is
 pass&eacute; in many circles.  But I still find the notion of
 patterns and pattern languages to be immensely useful, and
 even in 2017 I hear people express surprise at patterns are
 just commonsense or bad design dressed up in fancy writing.
 That makes me sad.  We need more descriptions of experts'
 implicit holistic design knowledge, not fewer.

 In closing, though, please don't read my reaction here as a
 diss of Brown's blog entry.  His two entries on Noble's patterns
 do a nice job showing how these patterns can improve a Ruby
 program and exploring the trade-offs between the "before"
 and "after" versions of the code.  I hope that he bring his
 Practicing Ruby project back to life.
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