"A pattern is a piece of literature that describes a design problem and a general solution for the problem in a particular context" (Cope), but it is not truth carved into stone. Even though the authors take greatest care to document them and writer's workshops enhance the quality even more, patterns can constantly be improved.
Experience shows that patterns ripe over time, as knowledge and the number of known uses increases. It is not that they become invalid, but often they become inprecise as the world around them evolves. The problems with "old" pattern descriptions are many-fold:
The trend to document patterns as pattern languages and not in isolation, made the need for revising obvious. This endeveaor is not meant as critique, but as constructive suggestion to enhance our world of patterns.
The goal of this focus group is to motivate the review and revisting of existing patterns to make them consistent with the latest state-of-the-art knowledge about the soutions they propose and the related patterns.
The focus group is expected to be a kick-off for the revisiting activies, not the actual revisiting itself - the time will be too short. Instead we will review some elementary patterns by example, such as Singleton, Command, and Broker, and try to get feedback and opinions on the endeveaor from the community.
Michael Kircher and Christa Schwanninger
Siemens AG, CT SE 2
Michael Kircher, Markus Voelter, Christa Schwanninger, and Klaus Jank, Broker Revisited Pattern
Michael Kircher and Markus Voelter, Command Revisited Pattern