Patterns are for People

Avdi Grimm in Patterns are for People:

Patterns aren’t tools for programming computers; they are tools for programming people. As such, to say that “patterns are a language smell” makes very little sense. Patterns are a tool for augmenting language: our language, the language we use to talk to each other about a problem and its solutions; the language we use to daydream new machines in our minds before committing them to code. Patterns aren’t a language smell; rather, patterns are by definition, [optional] language features. There’s so much we can learn if only we stop making everything into a battle between “new” tools or approaches and “old” ones. Patterns are relevant and useful in all forms of programming and we shouldn’t discard them just because they’re not “cool” anymore. Sadly we seem to throw out nearly all our experience and learning each time a new approach comes along rather than learning from and taking advantage of both.