Understanding design patterns
Design patterns originated as a way to capture and share solutions to recurring design problems. Initially rooted in object-oriented programming, they offered a structured approach to building software by identifying repeatable strategies that enhance code clarity, reusability, and maintainability. Over time, design patterns have evolved beyond their original context, influencing a wide range of development practices and system architectures, including LLM development. The following discussion traces the origins of design patterns and outlines the principles that have shaped their continued relevance across different programming paradigms and application domains.
Origins and evolution
The concept of design patterns in software engineering gained prominence in the 1990s, largely popularized by the book Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides, often referred to as...