History of Patterns

Initial Ward Cunningham wiki page describing history of pattern-based software development approaches

In 1987, Ward and Kent were consulting with Tektronix’s SemiconductorTestSystemsGroup that was having troubles finishing a design. They decided to try out the pattern stuff they’d been studying. Like Alexander who said the occupiers of a building should design it, Ward and Kent let representatives of the users (a trainer and a field engineer) finish the design.

http://c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?HistoryOfPatterns

Pattern Language and Software Design

Another obvious parallel is between the schematic processes learned to drive architectural design and their use in software architecture. The works of Christopher Alexander, particularly A Patter Language, have been adopted by software architects to drive more effective approaches to object-oriented problem solving. An example, http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/docs/patterns-intro.html. Need to explore this connection in more detail