   Best online community for theory questions?
  Does anyone know of a good forum or other online community that can critique or at least provide discussion on programming theory/best practices?  Things like design patterns particularly interest me.  Again and again, I find myself creating a function and then fighting with myself if it's being done in the right way/if its bad practice.  I'm pretty sure these kind of discussions are too high-level for Daniweb's C++ forums (I've never gotten theory answers there), and the software development forum here doesn't look like it has much activity.  Suggestions?   
  I don't have an answer for you, but you can try asking those questions in this forum (General Programming). Many people here like to discuss these kinds of things.   