Bob Hanmer asked me to read an early draft of his upcoming book "Patterns of Fault Tolerant Software". Intrigued by a reference in the manuscript to "The Timeless Way of Building" by Christopher Alexander I decided to read it myself. Here is the book which, if I understand matters, inspired the software patterns movement. I'm not sure I came away from the book any better a programmer but the almost spiritual trip through the soul of architecture left me both intellectually richer, and far less satisfied with the highly efficient and dehumanizing cookie cutter existence we have been led to accept.
