Walter Tichy Letter

Thoughts about PLOP'96.

A number of people have asked me what I thought about PLOP'96. Here's a quick summary. (I have not been to any other PLOP meeting.)

I think that the pattern approach is the most significant idea in software design since Parnas published his information hiding paper in 1972. For the first time, I see the beginnings of a design approach in which not everything has to be invented from scratch, but where existing solutions to design problems can be reused and adapted. Design patterns also have important implications for software maintenance and reengineering. Finally, compared to traditional design methods, there is great depth to this approach. Design patterns are not the idea of a single or small set of individuals; instead, the collective experience of many experienced software engineers is brought to bear, and many of the individual patterns reflect considerable technical insight.

Naturally, I would like to see this idea succeed. I think PLOP is helping this idea along in a major way. I'm impressed by the genuine interest of the organizers in making PLOP work and helping practicing software engineers. This is a great workshop, on a great topic. Please keep this in mind when reading some of the criticisms below. In no way do I intend to discourage PLOP organizers or attendees; instead, I would like to help make things a little better.

Here is what I got out of the workshop.

l. Games: Very unusual facet. I think the games are a great way for people to become loosened up and get to know each other. I wish more workshops would do this.

2. Discussions: Discussions with people one on one or in small groups can be more important than technical presentations. They were for me in this workshops. I'm glad I got to meet such a large number of interesting people and could get a feeling where their current thinking is going. This was excellent.

3. Review of my paper in the patterns workshop. The comments I received were exclusively about form and presentations, but nevertheless helpful. I'm thankful for them. However, I might have received them in writing from the two or three people who were experienced pattern writers and studied my paper in detail. In other words, a normal reviewing process would have been good enough, provided the reviewers took the time to do a careful job (many workshops and conferences do not).

4. Writers' workshops: Well intentioned for less experienced writers, but a bit of overkill for me. The net effect is that by spending over an hour per paper, I got to see only 7 patterns in three days. I think that other participants will feel that a good deal of their time is wasted, both because reviewing is really the job of the program committee, and because a number of papers weren't worth seeing. I felt I was roped into educating other people without being asked.

5. The "PLOP culture:" I'm a bit turned off by the fervor with which some individuals wish to establish a unique culture. I think this is not needed, and it creates barriers. The culture was necessary to protect the participants from attacks from the outside when the ideas were still in their infancy. They are no more. The pattern community can now stand up well on its own. If it retreats into its own culture, it might become irrelevant, see its ideas usurped by other groups, or even go off in the wrong direction. It has happened before. A unique culture is also a barrier for others to enter, and therefore retards growth. I think a normal science and engineering community is all that' s needed.

To summarize what I would like to see changed in future iterations of (E)PLOP:

a. Raise standards. The program committee has a duty to both authors and participants. It must protect participants from poor work; it must also protect authors from placing poor work into print. The latter aspect is often overlooked, but reputations are at stake and should be protected.

b. Keep the writers workshop, but do not make participation mandatory. Perhaps writers workshops can be held in the evenings, before or after the workshop, for those who want them. It is a great service to the younger or new members of the community.

c. Avoid cliquishness, even the appearance of it. Be open to, and welcome others not on adherence to culture, but on technical merits.

d. The main goal of the workshop should be to facilitate the exchange of new patterns, to help get them organized and classified. For this to work, participants need to see lots of patterns and be given the chance to discuss them. Perhaps a format in which a set of related patterns are presented by the authors in 10 to 15 min. slots, followed by a summary discussion would be the right format.

Please do experiment with the format a bit.

I had an exciting time during these few days at Allerton Park and am looking forward to more in the future.

Walter F. Tichy Sept. 6, 1996