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Jessie Henshaw These kinds of "data patterns" are what the common language term "patterns" refers to. Design patterns are a very different subject, what is being referred to when using "patterns" as a term, for discussing the designs of things, as a term in "pattern language". One could wish Alexander foresaw the confusion created by using a common word for one thing and giving it a quite different meaning. It's confusing however wonderful and conceptually appropriate, it may be to also use the word "pattern" to refer to "design patterns" as understood in pattern language, as essentially "what makes wholes whole".

So, bottom line, what's being referred to when discussing design patterns is

1. the combinations of design elements needed to create complete and satisfying holistic designs, and
2. how to state them explicitly so people working with them have a good idea what to look for to make them work. The heart of it is usually a two step process.
1. The first is recognizing the "forces" in a circumstance that need to be dealt with.
2. Second is then finding a "simplifying ideal" of design for addressing those forces all-together.
1. It might be the combination of parts for a shopping cart, "frame+swivel wheels+pushbar" or the combination of elements for a government as a unity of checks and balances, "executive+congress+courts coupled with "a free society" and "free press", the "essential essentials" of things...

What gets lost most often, and requires the most study to really understand the design patterns stores and used, is recalling or reconstructing the usually complex set of "forces" the pattern of elements so satisfyingly resolves. As you really don't know what they are unless you understand what they accomplish and are used for.

What is a Pattern

• A pattern is a form of seed. It contains a reflection of current work and thinking, as well as the vision of a future in which the seeds all have been successfully cultivated.
• Each pattern is presented using five main parts:
• title,
• problem,
• context,
• discussion, and
• solution.
• Additionally they often have an introductory graphic that conveys the idea and a diagram that summarizes the pattern. Alexander uses “pattern” in a specific sense.

canonical definition: “Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice.” Christopher Alexander (1977) in "A Pattern Language".

from PLAST project: The term "pattern" is used here in relation to "pattern language", a fairly simple strategy for describing the working patterns of complex holistic designs. So we aim to discuss (PLA) holistic pattern language designs for (ST) systemic transformation.

relating to (design) pattern as a formal concept: In the world of Alexander "any associative link can be a pattern" is probably false, because ASSOCIATIVE LINK is the pattern, while "a/any associative link" can only be a "pattern exemplar". - Helmut Leitner