I've been busy publishing on my website some of my recent pattern-related writing.
Inspired by code smells, Chris Kohls and I conceived of "pattern smells" and co-authored Pattern Smells, Get Rid of Them. This was workshopped at VikingPLoP 2026 in April... See https://wirfs-brock.com/rebecca/papers/patternsmells/

Pattern smells name and classify recurring weaknesses in patterns, ranging from misconceptions, insufficient domain grounding, and gaps in analysis, to overly optimistic or incomplete utopic claims and lack of wholeness.

Taking this one step further, we wrote the paper, Constructive Feedback Using Pattern Smells which we workshopped at EuroPLoP 2026: https://wirfs-brock.com/rebecca/papers/constructivefeedback/

So far, we have identified over 30 smells and characterized how and when they appear in the lifecycle of identifying, writing, and publishing patterns. https://wirfs-brock.com/rebecca/papers/patternsmells/media/diagram_full.png

If you would like to comment on the notion of "pattern smells", add your own favorite "smell" to our growing list, or just share a story or two about your pattern experiences, I would welcome hearing from you.