• The Growing Divide in the Patterns World

Joseph Bergin’s “Do the Right Thing”

Context:

Things are bad. Really bad.

Forces:

When things are bad it is really tough and bad things happen.

When things get better the bad stuff doesn’t happen any more and you feel good. Really good.

Solution:

Do the right thing. Make the bad thing better.

Resulting Context:

Things are good. Really good.

Known Uses:

When you were small your father would make the Monsters Under the Bed go away just by sticking his head in your room. He did the right thing.

When you are really sick, eat your Mom’s chicken soup. Only your Mom’s. Only she knows how to do the right thing.

Related Patterns:

Deep Thought, Law of Unintended Consequences

According to Jørgensen (2001), the most straightforward aspect of the code stage is represented by the astonishing rate of software developers contributing high quality code. Parallel review of such code constitutes the next stage. Paradoxically, even though more complex code would benefit from peer reviewing, it turns out that the simpler the code is, the more feedback contributors obtain. For instance, the following comments on the Linux kernel mailing list:

Start small, because for small patches people will have the few minutes needed to teach you. The bigger a patch, the harder it is to review it, and the less likely it happens.