Pattern and UML questions

[shivani anand]

I am bit confused with patterns.
I've few questions regarding pattern.
1> Is a design pattern different from pattern?
2> Can pattern present a set of alternative solutions rather than one?
3> How many patterns are their?
Their is one question regarding UML.
Q. How UML relate to Booch or other modeling languages?
thanks, in advance
shivani

[daniel schulken]

question 1
well design patterns are just patterns that software developers have come across time and agin
question 2
not quite sure what you mean.
question 3
well i belive there are 23 BASE patterns but lots of variations of the base patterns.
question 4
well i dont know exactly what booch modeling language was before he helped to create uml but i would guess that it takes parts from his modeling language and either extends or is taken directly?
is this correct guys/gals?

[Geoff Tate]

Patterns are design patterns
I don't know how many patterns there are, but people come up with new ones everyday. The "standard" patterns are defined in the GoF book, and explored for java in Mark Grands Patterns in Java Vol 1. I think you might find that at the start of a design one or two patterns might fit the bill, but after a few design iterations only one pattern really does what you need and allows the design to be flexible in a way you need. UML was created when Booch & co combined their three different approachs and eliminated the redundancies.

[ken chou]

The question 4 was discussed and answered already, just go to this link:
http://www.javaranch.com/ubb/Forum9/HTML/000207.html