Christopher Alexander's pattern language

In a series of books published between 1964 and 1987 (C. Alexander, 1964; 1987; C. Alexander et al., 1975; 1977), Christopher Alexander, an urban planner and architect, has inspired object oriented programmers with his idea of a pattern language, which originally catalogued solutions to common problems faced by any community or individual creating livable structures such as a town or a house. His approach might also help technical communicators polish and perfect our own standard rhetorical structures (such as the procedure, user guide, or reference), viewed as common ways of answering frequent, if virtual questions from our users. Alexander's way of describing age-old patterns such as neighbourhoods, streets, paths, and homes may give us a model for creating our own set of patterns in technical communication, whether or not we adopt some of the eager elaborations offered by folks in the object oriented design world.