In this paper, we study the structure of the set of tilings produced by any
given tile-set. For better understanding this structure, we address the set of
finite patterns that each tiling contains. This set of patterns can be analyzed
in two different contexts: the first one is combinatorial and the other
topological. These two approaches have independent merits and, once combined,
provide somehow surprising results. The particular case where the set of
produced tilings is countable is deeply investigated while we prove that the
uncountable case may have a completely different structure. We introduce a
pattern preorder and also make use of Cantor-Bendixson rank. Our first main
result is that a tile-set that produces only periodic tilings produces only a
finite number of them. Our second main result exhibits a tiling with exactly
one vector of periodicity in the countable case.Comment: 11 page