Pattern Books

[Junilu Lacar]

I personally own the GoF book, Craig Larman's "Applying Patterns and UML book" where he discusses what he calls the GRASP patterns and "AntiPatterns" by Brown, et. al.
I also currently have in my possession "Analysis Patterns" by Martin Fowler and "Patterns in Java" by Mark Grand which my company bought on my recommendation.
The only book I have read all the way through is Larman's book. I have only skimmed through the others and use them mostly as references when a need arises.
I think I also downloaded the electronic version of Thinking in Patterns but haven't actually looked at it yet. I like Bruce Eckel's approach: put it out on the web as a non-printable PDF and get feedback from a wider audience. If people like the book enough, they will buy the paper edition. I read the electronic version of "Thinking in Java" for a while and it actually helped me decide to get the paper version just because I wanted to take it around and read it while waiting for my wife while she went shopping
Linda, would you consider following Bruce Eckel's approach with the next edition of "Patterns Almanac"?
J.Lacar

[David Roberts]

I own:
1. Design Patterns (GoF)
2. Pattern Hatching (Vlissides)
3. UML and Patterns
I would also like to win your book.
- David
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David Roberts, SCJP2

[octavyn pittman]

I have to laugh when I read reviews like that. He is basically saying that he didn't understand it so he gave up. Yes, it is a difficult book... in fact it is extremely difficult. The way I attacked this book is that I spent a day with each pattern trying to work them into real life examples from my experince and coding up some Java samples. By the end of this excecise I felt transformed. Suddenly I was seeing patterns everywhere. The fact is that if this book was an easy read I would never have spent so much time on it and would never have learned it so well.

Were you able to come up with your own Java examples for all the different patterns? This sounds like an amazing exercise to go through.
OP

[Thomas Paul]

It was an amazing excercise and I recommend it to everyone. I was able to come up with Java examples for every pattern although some of them seemed strained. There are some patterns that I will probably never use in my professional life.

[Bosun Bello]

What exactly is GOF, the name of the authors. My company's library has these two books. Which one would reccomend that a beginner to patterns read first. I program in Java professionally. I just want to get a good idea of patterns, etc.
1. Applying UML and Patterns Larman
2. Design Patterns Gamma, Helm, Johnson, and Vlissides
Thanks, Bosun

[Thomas Paul]

GoF stands for "gang of four". The book is sometimes called the gang of four book or (since programmers can't resist acronyms) the GoF book.
The GoF book is more about patterns while the Larman book is more about using patterns. They are both excellent but I would start with the GoF book. You may want to pick up Design Patterns: A Tutorial which is a good Java companion book for the GoF book.