Guy Steele know a bit of Christopher Alexander's work though not a lot and i must say thanks to dick gabriel for pointing out to me a quote that has a lot to do with the main point of this talk i am sad to say that i do not know what this quote means because christopher alexander uses many words of more than one syllable and does not define them first but i have learned to say these words by rote and it may be that you out there can glean some thoughts of use to you christopher alexander says master plans have two additional unhealthy characteristics to begin with the existence of a master plan alienates the users after all the very existence of a master plan means by definition that the members of the community can have little impact on the future shape of their community because most of the important decisions have already been made in a sense under a master plan people are living with a frozen future able to affect only relatively trivial details when people lose the sense of responsibility for the environment they live in and realize they are merely cogs in someone else's machine how can they feel any sense of identification with the community or any sense of purpose there i think this means in part that it is good to give your users a chance to buy in and pitch in it is good for them and it is good for you in point of fact a number of cathedrals were built in the bizarre mode does this mean then that it is that it is of no use to design not at all but instead of designing a thing you need to design a way of doing and this way of doing must make some choices now but leave other choices to a later time which brings me to the word you have all been waiting for ⇒ Pattern
⇒ Slot