When I read the GoF book in '95 it was a revelation, I had learned C++ a few years earlier and here were all the things I had seen in my and other people's code with names and explanations. At the time Rogue Wave hosted an informal lunch meeting in our town where they and some OSU guys discussed patterns, I attended as a visitor and to me it just seemed magical. Over the years some of the high hopes have been dashed but I think some of the core pattern ideas have become useful standard idioms.

A year or so after reading the GoF book I saw the Alexander book in a used book store and picked it up to see what it was all about and I was very surprised. I like the book a lot but I really don't think the parallels with the GoF book and the software design patterns are all that strong. The Alexander book does not seem very systematic or analytic, it's more rambling and philosophical. I'm not an architect so I probably don't see the big picture but to me the book seems to lack a coherent vision.

If you're interested how Alexander himself saw himself fit into the emerging pattern movement, here's a link to James Coplien's description of Alexander's OOPSLA appearance in '96: https://sites.google.com/a/gertrudandcope.com/info/Publicati...

Hard to believe it's been 15 years!