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Head First Design Patterns
Average evaluation
At any given moment, somewhere in the world someone struggles with the same software design problems you have. You know you don't want to reinvent the wheel (or worse, a flat tire), so you look to Design Patterns--the lessons learned by those who've faced the same problems. With Design Patterns, you get to take advantage of the best practices and experience of others, so that you can spend your time on...something else. Something more challenging. Something more complex. Something more fun.
You want to learn about the patterns that matter--why to use them, when to use them, how to use them (and when NOT to use them). But you don't just want to see how patterns look in a book, you want to know how they look "in the wild". In their native environment. In other words, in real world applications. You also want to learn how patterns are used in the Java API, and how to exploit Java's built-in pattern support in your own code.
You want to learn the real OO design principles and why everything your boss told you about inheritance might be wrong (and what to do instead). You want to learn how those principles will help the next time you're up a creek without a design pattern.
Most importantly, you want to learn the "secret language" of Design Patterns so that you can hold your own with your co-worker (and impress cocktail party guests) when he casually mentions his stunningly clever use of Command, Facade, Proxy, and Factory in between sips of a martini. You'll easily counter with your deep understanding of why Singleton isn't as simple as it sounds, how the Factory is so often misunderstood, or on the real relationship between Decorator, Facade and Adapter.
With Head First Design Patterns, you'll avoid the embarrassment of thinking Decorator is something from the "Trading Spaces" show. Best of all, in a way that won't put you to sleep! We think your time is too important (and too short) to spend it struggling with academic texts.
If you've read a Head First book, you know what to expect--a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. Using the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science, and learning theory, Head First Design Patterns will load patterns into your brain in a way that sticks. In a way that lets you put them to work immediately. In a way that makes you better at solving software design problems, and better at speaking the language of patterns with others on your team.
Evaluated by Sebastian Hennebrueder
I know the standard book for design pattern - the Gang of Four book - and two or three other books on design patterns but this is my personal favourite.
It starts by a use case and an implementation of the use case. Then change happens as in every project basically to illustrate how change will break the former structure. From this situation a design pattern is introduced and it is explained how it will help to cope with the problem.
This approach shows you good and bad implementation the consequences and how a design pattern solves it. This approach is just great and in my opinion just what you need if you have to learn when, how and why to use design patterns.
The design patterns are not as complete as the ones in the Gang of Four book but the most common are explained. Another point which might be less appreciated is the context and the complexity of the examples. You will find ducks, strategies, pizza factories. You have to translate them in mind to your business use cases and some people might prefer more complex examples. Well, I liked them and I think it is OK, that samples are kept simple, while you are learning.
The illustration of the book is nice. Alternation of text, graphics and question games makes the reading interesting.
Best Regards
Sebastian Hennebrueder