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Alexandrian Antics

Long Simulation 170 minutes

The Influence of Alexander on Software Patterns

Jane Chandler

As the use of patterns becomes mainstream and widespread many using patterns are unaware of their origins in Christopher Alexander's work on architectural patterns together with his ideas on wholeness and centres. This session will therefore provide an overview of Christopher Alexander's work as an introduction to the theoretical basis of patterns by means of simulations and games.

Jane Chandler (Jane.Chandler@port.ac.uk)

University of Portsmouth

Jane's involvement with object technology began in 1989 when she was first introduced to Smalltalk. She has participated in the OT conferences since their inception both as a session leader and an organiser. Jane is also Chair of the BCS OOPS Group and a former editor of its quarterly newsletter. She work's for the University of Portsmouth where she is a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Information Systems.

Topics

Alexander's patterns
Pattern formats
Pattern languages
QWAN - The quality without a name
Centers and Wholeness
Turkish Carpets

Benefits

An overview of Alexander's work
An understanding of the history of patterns
A grasp of the basic terminology of patterns
An appreciation of the structure of patterns
New ways of introducing patterns

Session: Long Simulation 170 minutes	Level: basic
Audience: This session is aimed at: (i) people who are interested inwhat the connections are between Alexander's architectural patterns and software patterns; (ii) people looking for novel ways of teaching about patterns	Max 32

Material

Details of the games to be played and their real life counterparts
Glossary of words that may be puzzling (related to the games, patterns and Alexander)
List of books and web addresses to enable participants to follow up topics of interest.

Delivery

Format

The session will start with a general introduction and the participants being split into small groups. Each group will be introduced to and have the opportunity to play four of the games listed below. The 30 minutes each group spends with a game will include time to reflect on the game and the things they have learnt from it. The final 30 minutes of the session will be an opportunity for reflection on games, the things learnt and suggestions for refining the games.

Pattern Families - based on Happy Families the aim is to collect as many Alexander pattern families as possible e.g Ornament Context, Ornament Problem, Ornament Solution, Ornament Connected Patterns

Carpet Pairs - similar to Pairs where all cards are placed faced down and you have to find two which match but in this case using Alexander's Turkish carpets

Treasure Hunt - find various treasures in Alexander's works

Center Dominos - be the first to match all your centers, positive spaces, symmetries and animals with those of others

Alexander's Game - a quiz game on Alexander and his work based on the "The Bird-Table Game" board game which aims to educate as it goes and keep everyone in with a chance of winning until the end

QWAN and Anti-QWAN - An introduction to QWAN and wholeness based on Snakes and Ladders

Structure

Introduction, description of games and splitting into groups (20 minutes)

Each group will visit 4 of the games spending 30
minutes playing each one (120 minutes)

Report back by groups (30 minutes)

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