If it is technology specific, is it still a design pattern?

manpreet Best Answer 3 years ago

I went to a .NET user group meeting tonight, and part of it revolved around the model-view-view model pattern, and it got me wondering if this qualified as a pattern.
The issue I have is that M-V-VM is extremely technology specific. If you do not use WPF and its binding mechanism, I don't see how you could use that pattern.
By contrast, most "classic" patterns are largely technology agnostic. The biggest assumption they make is that the language used is object-oriented, and typically supports inheritance. Beyond that, classic patterns are mostly about stating a general design problem, and proposing an approach to resolving it - but multiple implementations or variations are possible.
My question is then where do you draw the line, between what is a design pattern and what is a recommendation on how to use a very specific framework? If you know how to implement it and what language and technology you need to use to do so, is it still a pattern?