Design patterns have always fascinated software developers, yet true knowledge of their applicability and consequences has eluded many. The various solutions that have been created and applied to solve similar problems have been studied over time by experienced developers and architects. A movement slowly began to catalog such time-tested and successful solutions, which served as a blueprint for software design. The applicability of design patterns exhibited maturity (even though over-engineering was a perceived risk) in solution architecture (in terms of stability, consistency, maintainability, and extensibility), and became a core skill for serious developers and architects. In this introduction to patterns and pattern catalogs, the authors wish to provide a detailed illustration of the movement in the software development industry that led to the discovery and consolidation of the various patterns and pattern catalogs. It is equally important to understand the evolution of patterns, idioms, programming languages, and standards that led to standardization of these technology-agnostic blueprints, which form the basis of enterprise application development today. We will cover the following topics in this regard:
- History of object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques, idioms, and patterns
- Patterns and pattern movement
- Key patterns and pattern catalogs
- Key C# language features that facilitate implementation of OOP techniques, idioms, and patterns