This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz
by Ben Hosking.
Original Post: The Decorator Blog Pattern
Feed Title: A Funny Java Flavoured Look at the World
Feed URL: http://businesslogs.com/WebLog/RSS.xml
Feed Description: The blog looks at using Java and programming in general as it pops up in life as a Java programmer. It will have links to interesting Java articles and resources. It will also have a lot of SCJP Java 1.5 information and links as I am currently studying
I often implement the Decorator Blog Pattern. When I say this I am referring to my blog entries where I link to an article I found interesting but instead of just having the link and nothing else I like to talk about the article or sample chapter and give my opinion or thoughts on it. If you do not know what the decorator pattern is here is a link to wikipedia on the subject http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decorator_pattern
The decorator pattern is basically using an object and wrapping some functionality around the object.
I was wondering how useful this type of blogging is, is it really worth while me doing this. Firstly the article or resource I am linking to is already out there and I am just pointing to it. People could find this information themselves without visiting my blog.
After a bit of thinking I decided that it is worth while. I think it's worth while if the person linking actually comments on the topic of the article or resource. I believe this can offer some very useful information on the topic in question. Sometimes when people are reading something on a new topic it helps to have different opinions to consider because different people assimilate knowledge in different ways and sometimes you don't understand something the way one person explained it but then you understand it when someone else explains is. I call this adding a different angle on a topic. I view a topic as the information and each article or blog gives you a different angle on the topic so you start to understand it better because you are seeing it from all sides.
When people comment and link they can also bring in first hand experience of the topic or a real life example and this usually gives you details on gotchas on the topic or/and you can learn from their mistakes and success's.
Finally with the decorator blog pattern you can just give your opinion this could well conceivable add extra information onto the article/sample chapter/etc and this is the main reason why I call it the decorator pattern, you are decorating the link with your opinion/experience of the topic and adding some value to the link.
I also considered the links I was blogging about were links I had visited and found interesting, so if people are reading my blog then it is likely they would also find the article interesting. So instead of them having to find it they can sit back and let me search out the interesting articles and alert them when I have done.
So overall I think that it is worth while, it also has the benefit of making it easy to find the links I have thought are interesting if I want to look at them again. I think it is worth while if you add some value to the links and comment on them with your experience or opinion rather than just putting a link with one line of text.
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