Best practices BAD, patterns GOOD?

Question

Why are "best practice" questions so derided here, when "pattern" questions are not?

According to Wikipedia:

Patterns are formalized best practices that the programmer can use to solve common problems when designing an application or system.

I've read some of the articles discussing why "best practice" questions are thought to be often/usually/inevitably mushy and unhelpful. I even agree with much of the reasoning. But I've also seen "best practice" questions that seem appropriate and on-topic. Even they face rapid down-voting for hold or close, and chiding in the comments.

My confusion is that even though patterns are, by definition, "best practices," Programmers is awash is pattern questions--and they seem warmly welcomed. Even when they are vague or novice--some on the order of "please boil the ocean for me and give me the best pattern name for this situation that I have apparently never even Googled"--they don't seem to suffer rapid dismissal, down-voting or chiding. They are graciously entertained and answered.

So what gives? Is "the right pattern" just an a community-enforced euphemism? Or is there a meaningful distinction being made?

Answer 1

From Why is asking a question on "best practice" a bad thing?

While you may be an exemplary, clear-thinking, individual, who uses the term 'best practice' in a constructive manner, you have been preceded by a giant procession of zombies who use it as the antithesis of thought. Instead of understanding the important specifics of their situation and looking for an appropriate solution, all they want is to spot a herd in the distance and go trotting off after it. Thus, the term 'best practice' has been rendered an extremely strong signal of a empty resonant cavity in the place where a brain should be, and questions that mention the phrase get closed.

My question to the OP is often this: what do you mean by best? The answer is often, "What programmers generally accept as the correct solution," which is a tautology, or "which one do programmers choose most often," which suggests popularity as a valid metric for choosing a technology.

My response is often "The best way is the one that most effectively achieves your software's functional and non-functional requirements."

Software design patterns are a different animal. These are well-accepted solutions to well-understood problems, and serve as a vocabulary for developers designing their programs. They are considered best practices, not because they are "correct" or most popular, but because they are proven solutions in the problem domains they are solving.

When a person asks "what is the best design pattern for this particular problem," they are engaging in a pattern-matching exercise, not cargo-cult programming.

Answer 2

A "best practice" is a technique or process that developers agree is the correct way to do something. However, the question is rather loaded. What makes it "best?" Why is one technique better than another, and does it depend on context? Of course what is "best" in one instance of a problem might not be best in another. In other words, why not just ask "how do I solve this problem?" instead of "what cookie-cutter technique can I apply here?" A best practice is, in essence, a popularity contest anyway. That works well for random "reality" TV shows, not so well for developing good software.

Design patterns are objective. I can draw a strategy pattern on a whiteboard and we can agree that it is, in fact, the strategy pattern.

The difference here is that while we can clearly define a design pattern, we do not necessarily agree that it is the right tool for a particular job or is the best way to approach a problem.

Of course, "pattern shopping" problems tend to exhibit similar problems to "best practice shopping" problems. The key here is "shopping." Someone heard of a buzzword and thinks it will solve a problem, so they ask a question for "I need a recommendation on which widget is the best one." Whether talking about best practices or design patterns, the correct question is to ask how to solve the problem at hand, and to be open to all constructive suggestions.

Answer 3

Best practice questions themselves aren't that bad, but too often they're about something that has no consensus best practice. At that point, they quickly become "what do you think about X?" questions, which tend to devolve into argument and flame war.

Pattern questions tend to be a bit worse actual questions (more of the aforementioned cargo cult) though they at least have single answers.

Answer 4

Guilt by association; the term is often misunderstood and therefore misused. Questions like "spaces vs tabs", "Java vs Ruby" and "should this method be private?" has nothing to do with "Best Practices". There are however practices which almost all of the best developers agree upon, this set of practices is what the term "Best Practices" refers to.

Stack overflow even states:

We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise

Now, doesn't that sound a lot like the definition of "best practices"? A practice which is not supported by facts, references or expertise can't be considered a "best practice".

Lastly note that "Best Practices" is a misnomer; "Best Practices" are not the best ways to solve problems, they are the practices used by the best in the field. So when consultants sell "Best Practices" all they do is implement practices used by top firms.

Answer 5

A best practice can be applied beyond programming and certainly is more generic than a design pattern, which is very programming specific within the stack exchange network.

UX has best practices, info-sec has best practices, and these are some areas where.. you really shouldn't deviate too much. For example when information security is concerned, its strongly encouraged to not roll your own security. Salting a password before hashing it is a best practice, not a design pattern. And just because you may not understand the benefits of doing so does not mean that you should deviate from it, and getting creative with it is not encouraged.

For UX, designing with the goal of being intuitive means following some best practices. There are infinite ways to layout a website/form, but its not a good thing to have to educate the user how to use it if you can avoid that. Ideally it is an intuitive experience, which is where best practices come into play.

I'm not familiar with why some programmers associate the phrase negatively, you'll have to refer to their answers. However I do not share that viewpoint. And downvoting for usage of the phrase is downright childish.