Following on from a previous article entitled [Why design is Critical to Software Development][1], I would like to tackle a slightly more advanced aspect of software design called Design Patterns. As with my previous article, the idea came about during a discussion concerning the merits of software design with a work colleague. The protagonist of the discussion was of the opinion that Design Patterns are too time consuming to be of use within the field of commercial software development. My intention here is to demonstrate why I believe that to be wrong.
I will not go into any details about the mechanics or implementation of any particular Design Patterns. There are many excellent sources for these available elsewhere.