Christopher Alexander changed architecture, or at least how we talk about it, with his book The Timeless Way of Building. His follow-on book, A Pattern Language gave people a way to talk about the things they cared about in buildings and their surroundings but hadn't known how to talk about before. Alexander calls it 'the Quality without a Name,' the things that make a place worth living in or working in.

Mike Axelrod has an interesting post about traditions in software development that also talks about looking for things-that-work and common languages by which users and developers can create working applications.

Do we have a tradition yet? I think not. Are we close? I think so. The tools are still being refined; the ways of building are still being explored. The pattern languages are still unfolding. When programmers and the people that use these creations can speak these languages fluently and with ease, then I feel that we as a community will have moved that much closer to a real tradition in this craft that we are trying so hard to perfect.

Just as in days of old. Any villager could go to the local woodworker and ask for a chair, a table, or a house with a door and windows. And that artisan would build one just right. And perhaps, if it were a barn that was needed, the whole village would help. And each villager would know his or her role in building the barn. The elders would lead and the young would learn. And it would be built just the right way to fit the family that needed it and fit the land it was on and the village that it lived in. So too can our software creations fit just so and run just right and co-exist with so many applications in our world in just the right way. And like the barn raising of old sometimes a whole community may come together to create new software and build a better future. I think that if this is the vision, then I am indeed looking forward to being part of a new tradition

...via mamamusings