The Death of Patterns and the Last Pattern Language

Alexander has been nurturing a vision of beauty and support for human comfort as his understanding of design has evolved over the past 40 years. In a talk to the software community in 1996, he challenged us to look beyond our short-term business focus, to rise above the exercise of our technical prowess, and to embrace the moral imperative to build systems that are whole, systems that live. The software pattern community is often viewed -- even by itself - as the group carrying this torch. However, that community has fallen far short of that vision. What does Alexander's vision really mean to us? Where have we fallen short? What will be the death of the current pattern discipline, and what does that mean to the industry?