Users: Programmers developing Smalltalk applications.

Using Patterns

Problem: Numerous books of design patterns have been published, many of which are of use to Smalltalk programmers; many more patterns exist implicitly in Smalltalk system and application code. The published patterns can be referenced in other documentation, thereby giving follow-on programmers a starting place for understanding an application. The implicit patterns, however, can only be learned through code studies, and lacking an identity and separate documentation, it is not possible for other applications to reference them.

Solution: SmalltalkDoc overview documents can be used to centrally document and organize patterns of general interest to the Smalltalk community. It may also be desirable to define a new type of SmalltalkDoc, a PatternDoc, that provides a common template for the description of patterns; perhaps similar to that used by the original Design Patterns book.