Congratulations to our monthly contest winner for November, David Noble of Orangeville, Ontario. Bibliography Adequate documentation of the experience gained during the development of XML-based systems is a prerequisite for XML's success as a widely used technology. Design patterns have proved to be a very good technique for transmitting, and to some extent formalizing, knowledge about recurring problems and solutions in the software development process. This article assumes some basic knowledge about XML processing.
Patterns are an effective way to transmit experience about recurrent problems.
A pattern is a named, reusable solution to a recurrent problem in a particular context. Patterns are not miraculous recipes that will work in every scenario, but they do convey important knowledge, a standard solution, and a common language about a recurrent problem. All this makes them powerful design tools. Design patterns are a powerful reuse mechanism, and a way to talk about design decisions that actually work. XML patterns will be discussed more fully in the next article.