[Dev] Reading Circle

[Tom Bryan]

On Saturday 16 February 2002 11:02 pm, prhodes@vdsinc.com wrote:

> They started with
> a different patterns book: "DesignPatternsExplained: A New Perspective on
> Object Oriented Design", written by AlanShalloway and JamesTrott.  
> Apparently it's considered more of an introductory
> level book on the subject?  So, might we want to do that, then go on to the
> GoF book?  Or would you guys just want to jump into the GoF right away?  

I've never seen the other book.  I've read most of the GoF book.  If you're 
currently a software developer doing object-oriented development in Java, 
C++, Python, etc., then I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the GoF book.  

The concept of design patterns is presented well at the beginning of the book 
and is fairly straight forward.  The individual patterns aren't that bad.  
Implementing them is usually pretty easy, given the explanations in the text. 
It just takes some thinking to figure out where each pattern fits, how they 
relate to each other, when to use and not use each one, and where they might 
be useful in code you're writing.  By "thinking," I don't mean "figuring it 
out" like computing algorithm timings.  I mean something more like 
"pondering" or "reflecting."  This book is, IMHO, an excellent choice for a 
reading group because it is one where hearing diverse points of view and 
drawing on different people's backgrounds can really add a lot to the book.  

---Tom