Re: A clear difference between algorithm and a pattern

From: Universe (universe_at_tAkEcovadOuT.net)
Date: 01/21/04 

Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 20:29:57 -0500

"Simon Strandgaard" <neoneye@adslhome.dk> wrote in message
news:pan.2004.01.20.22.21.37.446063@adslhome.dk...
> On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 21:07:48 +0800, Ravi Shankar wrote:
> > Can anyone please give me a precise distinction between an
algorithm and a
> > pattern?

A pattern is a "formalized" algorithm.

I.e. a pattern is a common solution to a recurring "problem".

But actually an OO pattern, versus an algorithm, is more thought of as
invovling a topological (spatial) arrangement of classes {components;
categories (group of classes)} and their interrelationships.
Algorithms in CS/SWEng tend to be thought of as a set of *procedures*,
or *operations*. But obviously patterns involve solutions of not just
commonly known and adopted spatial arrangements of abstractions, but
commonly known and adopted procedures, and operations applied to the
arrangements of class abstractions. So things are close and theirs no
"hard and fast" demarcation.

Elliott 

--
"While system architecture is the blueprint of the overall system,
software architecture
is the blueprint of the software in the center of the system.
Originally conceptualized by
Dijkstra and Parnas [Dij72, Par01a, Par01b] software architecture is
concerned with the
perspectives of: global organization as a composition of components,
global control
structures, communication protocols, and physical locations over which
the system is distributed" [Tom99]

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