Design Patterns in programming

Welcome! I believe you are one of those guys on the lookout for a simple article about design patterns. If you are a master in design patterns already, you might get bored by this 'Yet another novice article' :)

I was one of the numerous programmers who started coding applications with curiosity right after learning a programming language. There are no words to express the joy one experiences when his code, a work of art, produces the expected results seamlessly. All goes well until someone else(or the developer himself) tries to extend the functionality of the existing program to provide new functionalities. The difficulty arises due to poor readability, poor reuse, strong coupling and finally the developer ends up modifying the code over and over again, sometimes resulting in a time that is not far less than developing the code from the scratch. Ofcourse, I was no exception. So I have decided to write down my understanding of the design patterns so that it gives a basic understanding to someone who starts a journey into the world of design patterns.

Over the years, programmers have faced these woes and refined their programming practices such that the design minimizes coding problems that arise due to less readability, less interoperability and strong coupling between classes (and much more unspeakable horrors....). These practices are captured and documented, which we call today as the design patterns. The design patterns are more apt for Object Oriented Programming languages. The design patterns are discovered on the go. In fact many programmers who have no knowledge of design patterns, are in fact, using them! For example, inheritence itself is a design pattern.

I am going to write simple articles about design patterns which might serve as a starting point to learning design patterns. There are numerous sites out there which teach all the possible design patterns that exist, in detail which you can refer if you need to go to an advanced level(as if you don't know this!!).