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Design Patterns, Elements of Reusable OO Software by Gamma & Helm & Johnson & Vlissides Highly Recommended

ISBN: 0-201-63361-2       Publisher: Addison-Wesley       Pages: 395 pages       Price: £28-95

Categories:   object oriented     patterns

Reviewed by Kevlin Henney in C Vu 7-6 (Sep 1995)

Patterns were an idea originally captured in the domain of architecture and communities by Christopher Alexander and colleagues in the seventies. They describe the essence of designs or configurations that 'work', i.e. concepts proven empiric-ally to be useful and aesthetic. We are talking about successful 'meta-designs' and as such this powerful idea is directly usable by OO practitioners.

The book documents, in well structured and well-written detail, a number of these successful design solutions. It is arranged in purpose related groups as a catalogue of 23 patterns, fully explained with diagrams and bona fide examples.

This is not a book of invention or fiction about programming and systems development; the patterns identified in this book are real. You should find patterns that mirror solutions that you have adopted; some that reflect a clearer view of problems you have tackled and a couple that inspire an 'Aha! That's what I'm after!'
If you have even the slightest inclination towards considering yourself a serious OO developer, this book should be on your shelf.

Helm
Design Patterns - Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Gamma & Helm & Johnson & Vlissides [Recommended]  (Reviewed Aug 1995)

Johnson
AutoCAD, the Complete Reference (Second Edition) by Nelson Johnson  (Reviewed Mar 1992)
Building Application Frameworks by Mohamed Fayad & Ralph Johnson & Douglas Schmidt [Recommended]  (Reviewed Jul 2000)
Database Models, Languages, Design by James Johnson [Highly Recommended]  (Reviewed Jul 1998)
Design Patterns - Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Gamma & Helm & Johnson & Vlissides [Recommended]  (Reviewed Aug 1995)
Domain-Specific Application Frameworks by Mohamed Fayad & Ralph Johnson  (Reviewed Jul 2000)
Electronic Publishing Construction Kit by Scott Johnson  (Reviewed Mar 1997)
LABVIEW Graphical Programming by Gary Johnson [Recommended]  (Reviewed Nov 1996)
Troubleshooting and Configuring the Windows NT/95 Registry by C Johnson  (Reviewed Nov 1997)
Turbo C++ By Example by Johnson & Perry  (Reviewed Jan 1994)
Turbo C++ by Example by M Johnson & Greg Perry  (Reviewed May 1993)

Vlissides
Design Patterns - Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Gamma & Helm & Johnson & Vlissides [Recommended]  (Reviewed Aug 1995)
Pattern Languages of Program Design 2 by Vlissides [Recommended]  (Reviewed Nov 1996)