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From: howard@metheus.UUCP (Howard A. Landman)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: A Pattern Language
Message-ID: <244@metheus.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-May-84 19:50:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: metheus.244
Posted: Mon May 21 19:50:35 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 26-May-84 11:51:00 EDT
Organization: Metheus, Portland Oregon
Lines: 57

I subscribe to CoEvolution Quarterly, which is a magazine put out by the
people who did The Whole Earth Catalog.  Recently they started hyping a
moderately pricey ($45) book called "A Pattern Language", published by
the Oxford University Press.  In a long, rather glowing review they called
it the best book on any subject they had ever reviewed.

Having read several other books that were mentioned in TWEC or CoEv, I found
that quite a substantial statement.  After several months of hesitation, I
finally broke down and ordered it.

Physically, the book is very well made.  It looks something like a thick
hardcover bible.  The paper is thin but strong.  The typography is varied
in a way which makes it easier to read, use, and understand the book.  There
are numerous (small) supporting photos and diagrams, much like a dictionary
or encyclopedia.

The book's subtitle is "Towns, Buildings, Construction".  Its subject matter
covers essentially all of City Planning, Architecture, Transportation,
Education, Construction, and Sociology.  It is not a survey of these
areas but rather a "What to, why to, how to" primer.  It is organized as
a network (acyclic directed graph for you math types) of interrelated
concepts.  Each concept (there are 253 of them) takes several pages to explain.
A rough outline of a random concept might look like:
	1. Higher level concepts that this concept can be a part of, or
	   help complete.
	2. Short statement of the problem.
	3. Long explanation and analysis of the problem, leading to...
	4. Short statement of the solution (in the form of a directive).
	5. Lower level concepts that can help form and complete this concept.

The net effect is that it is impossible to get narrow-minded, tunnel-vision
solutions to problems using this book.  As soon as you try to use it to help
you figure out something specific (like where to route a new highway, or how
to build that new porch on your house) it immediately forces you to consider
the larger and smaller consequences of the decision.  Will the highway destroy
an existing neighborhood by cutting it in two, or separating it from its main
shopping area?  Will it reduce or increase traffic congestion?  What is the
impact on parking?  How can noise from the highway be reduced?  In the case
of the porch, you will be directed to concepts dealing with entryways in
general, seating arrangements (you are going to allow people to SIT on the
porch, yes?  Where?  On what kind of seating?), and many others.

It is possible to read the book through from cover to cover, which I am
trying to do now (I'm up to the 32nd concept).  Since the arrangement is
large-scale concepts first, the feeling is that of starting with a grand,
bird's-eye overview of a region, and slowly working your way down to
smaller views with correspondingly more detail.

As you might have guessed by now, I heartily recommend this book for anyone
who lives in any of the following and cares about it/them: a house, a
neighborhood, a city, a region.  When I first got it, I read a page to a
friend.  Several times during the page, he objected "But that's just common
sense!".  Then he stopped and thought.  Several items of common sense per
page times about a thousand pages ... Hmmm.  An uncommon achievement.

	Howard A. Landman
	ogcvax!metheus!howard