engineering

John Vlissides

John Vlissides is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Vlissides rather than just read about it. In short: John Matthew Vlissides (August 2, 1961 – November 24, 2005) was a software engineer known mainly as one of the four authors (referred to as the Gang of Four) of the book Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. Vlissides referred to himself as "#4 of the Gang of Four and wouldn't have it any other way".

Key takeaways

John Vlissides belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Vlissides to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Vlissides from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Matthew Vlissides (August 2, 1961 – November 24, 2005) was a software engineer known mainly as one of the four authors (referred to as the Gang of Four) of the book Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. Vlissides referred to himself as "#4 of the Gang of Four and wouldn't have it any other way".

Education and career Vlissides studied electrical engineering at University of Virginia and Stanford University. Since 1986 he worked as software engineer, consultant, research assistant and scholar at Stanford University. From 1991 he stayed at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, New York as research staff member. He was author of several books, of many magazine articles and conference papers and was awarded with several patents. His work concentrated on object oriented technology, design patterns and software modeling.

Death John Vlissides died on Thanksgiving 2005 (November 24, 2005) following a struggle with complications from a brain tumor. He was 44 years old.

Posthumous Ward Cunningham and Grady Booch (on his blog entry of Nov 27, relaying a call from John Vlissides's widow, Dru Ann) have called for stories to remember him by. Since then, there has been a steady inflow of contributions located at the WikiWikiWeb page for Vlissides. In recognition of the contributions to computer science that John Vlissides made during his lifetime, ACM SIGPLAN has established the John Vlissides Award. The award is presented annually to a doctoral student participating in the OOPSLA Doctoral Symposium showing significant promise in applied software research.

References

External links John's website at IBM at the Wayback Machine (archived February 6, 2005) Selected publications at the Wayback Machine (archived February 7, 2005) CV of Vlissides at the Wayback Machine (archived February 7, 2005) (PDF file) Obituary in Washington Post The wiki of John Vlissides

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Vlissides

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Vlissides claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Vlissides before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Vlissides ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Vlissides

In research: John Vlissides appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Vlissides in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Vlissides is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1961 births, 2005 deaths, 20th-century American engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Vlissides outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Vlissides in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Vlissides means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Vlissides out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Vlissides in simple terms?

Why does John Vlissides matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Vlissides?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Vlissides.