spread out of design patterns?

[Ner min]

Hi,
Does anybody know any academic study/research paper which examines the spread out of design patterns in software/java development? Something like 88% of developers are using Design Patterns or?
I know it is a silly question but I need it for my masterwork and I just can’t google it – can it be, that nobody did that kind of survey by now?

tnx in advance

[Jimmy Clark]

How many developers are there in the world today?

[Jelle Klap]

It's pretty much impossible to determine, I think.
There are lots and lots of design patterns of different classification. You've got creational patterns, behavioral patterns, structural patterns etc. Some are documented, some are not (and in turn may not be recognized). Some patterns have one or more derivations. Then there are also architectural patterns. You've got your language or platform specific idoms etc. etc.
Even if you could get a comprehensive list, you've still got the developer side of the equation. How many developers are there? What would be a good statistical population? Some developers may claim that they apply patterns, but they may be doing it wrong. Some developers who don't think about applying patterns consciously might be applying them instinctively etc.

[Jimmy Clark]

There are lots and lots of design patterns of different classification. You've got creational patterns, behavioral patterns, structural patterns etc. Some are documented, some are not (and in turn may not be recognized).

All object-oriented design patterns are documented. Documentation is "the" fundamental element of an object-oriented design pattern, i.e. it is not an object-oriented design pattern if there is no documentation.

[Ner min]

Hi,

thanks for replay, yes you are right, and I m also developer and we all know that design patterns are widely used in almost every software, the questions about DP are asked on each programmer job interview etc
But I need results of some kind of empiric studies, and of course it imposible to make a full worldwide study but can/would be a representative study on any oop language in any area … but I simply cant find any