Editing Christopher Alexander (section)

===Computer science===
Alexander's ''[[Notes on the Synthesis of Form]]'' was said{{by whom|date=January 2025}} to be required reading for researchers in computer science throughout the 1960s. It had an influence<ref name="naur">{{cite conference |first=H. |last=Kilov |title=Using RM-ODP to bridge communication gaps between stakeholders |book-title=Communications H Kilov |conference=Workshop on ODP for Enterprise Computing 2004 |citeseerx=10.1.1.161.553 |quote=Peter Naur proposed in 1968 to use Christopher Alexander's work…}}</ref> in the 1960s and 1970s on [[programming language design]], modular programming, [[object-oriented programming]], software engineering and other design methodologies. Alexander's mathematical concepts and orientation were similar to [[Edsger Dijkstra]]'s influential ''A Discipline of Programming''.<ref>{{Cite book
 |edition=Facsimile
 |publisher=Prentice Hall, Inc.
 |isbn=978-0-13-215871-8
 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/disciplineofprog0000dijk/page/217 217]
 |last1=Dijkstra
 |first1=E. |author1-link=Edsger Dijkstra
 |title=A Discipline of Programming
 |date=28 October 1976
 |url=https://archive.org/details/disciplineofprog0000dijk/page/217
}}</ref>

The greatest influence of ''[[A Pattern Language]]'' in computer science is the [[design patterns]] movement.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/Chris.text.html#COMPUTER |title=Christopher's Alexander's influence on Computer Science |author=Nikos A. Salingaros |access-date=8 February 2014 |archive-date=15 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415002236/http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/Chris.text.html#COMPUTER |url-status=dead}}</ref> Alexander's philosophy of incremental, organic, coherent design also influenced the [[extreme programming]] movement.<ref name="accu">{{cite web|url=http://accu.org/index.php/journals/509|title=ACCU :: eXtreme Programming An interview with Kent Beck|first=ACCU|last=Members|website=accu.org}}</ref> The [[Wiki]] was invented<ref name="C2 Wiki Front Page"/><ref name="c2.com"/> to allow the [[Hillside Group]] to work collaboratively on programming [[design patterns]]. More recently the "deep geometrical structures" as discussed in ''[[The Nature of Order]]'' have been cited as having importance for [[object-oriented programming]], particularly in C++.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~chang/budha/coplien.htm|title=Space: The Final Frontier|website=www.cs.pitt.edu}}</ref>

[[Will Wright (game designer)|Will Wright]] wrote that Alexander's work was influential in the origin of the ''[[SimCity]]'' computer games, and in his later game ''[[Spore (2008 video game)|Spore]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iconeye.com/architecture/features/item/3261-will-wright-interview|title=Will Wright interview|website=iconeye.com}}</ref>

Alexander often led his own software research, such as the 1996 Gatemaker project with [[Greg Bryant (computer scientist)|Greg Bryant]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gatemaker.org|title=Aspen – early 1997|website=gatemaker.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first1=Bryant |last1=Greg |date=2013 |url=http://www.rainmagazine.com/archive/2014/gatemaker |title=Gatemaker: Christopher Alexander's dialogue with the computer industry |website=Rain Magazine}}</ref>

Alexander discovered and conceived a recursive structure, so called wholeness, which is defined mathematically, exists in space and matter physically, and reflects in our minds and cognition psychologically. He had his idea of wholeness back to early 1980s when he finished his first version of ''The Nature of Order''. His idea of wholeness or degree of wholeness relying on a recursive structure of centers resemble aspects of Google's PageRank.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Jiang |first1=Bin |date=27 March 2015 |title=Wholeness as a Hierarchical Graph to Capture the Nature of Space |journal=International Journal of Geographical Information Science |volume=29 |issue=9 |pages=1632–1648 |doi=10.1080/13658816.2015.1038542 |bibcode=2015IJGIS..29.1632J |s2cid=8209848 |arxiv=1502.03554}}</ref>