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Head First Design Patterns

From O'Reilly Media

Binding : Paperback
DeweyDecimalNumber : 005.1
EAN : 9780596007126
Edition : 1
ISBN : 0596007124
Label : O'Reilly Media
Manufacturer : O'Reilly Media
NumberOfPages : 688
ProductTypeName : ABIS_BOOK
PublicationDate : 2004-10-25
Publisher : O'Reilly Media
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Customer Reviews

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully effective
Comment: The key issue with design patterns is that software engineers have to know them in order to use them. This book addresses that issue by working hard to ensure that the patterns are absorbed by the reader in the necessary detail ... as opposed to simply documenting them. The Head First books are all good at helping one absorb material ... but there may be no other area of software engineering where the approach is needed more.
Rating:
Summary: excellent book
Comment: This is a very good book to read about design patterns. It is very easy to understand the concepts and remember them than just reading the books on how to code them in different frameworks.

I highly recommmend this book to anyone interested in learning the design patterns.
Rating:
Summary: Good introduction but poor in examples
Comment: This is a good book for you if you don't have much experience in Design Patterns. It approaches the theme by introducting the basic concepts and how to apply them in Java language. The only critic I have is that this book like many others should come with practical examples. That's why I didn't give it 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and instructive
Comment: I really enjoyed working through this book. Yes it does take awhile to work through the examples. However I found the graphical build-up approach to the examples extremely helpful in remembering the structure and application of the patterns. A refreshingly different approach to writing a programming book!
Rating:
Summary: Attention C# programmers
Comment: Before buying this book, I read "C# 3.0 Design Patterns" (C3DP) as it used my preferred language.That book was not as clear as I needed, so I considered other options.

I purchased Head First Design Patterns based on reviews at this site.
For the most part, I had no problem understanding the Java, and the
implementation of most patterns into C# is straight forward.
The largest deficiency of this book is that, unlike C3DP which gives
equal treatment to each pattern, HFDP gives provides only summary
descriptions of 9 of the 23 patterns (2 pages for each pattern.)
This kind of terseness for so many patterns is not what I was looking for.
One star lost. For most other patterns. the presentation is crystal clear.

There was a problem with the explanation of the difference between Abstract Factory
and Factory Method patterns. An elaborate Pizza-related example was used
in both patterns but then the discussion of the pattern differences completely
ignored the example and used a completely different set of terms that confused
me more that helped.

The other problem is the amount of Java-specific code.
The 70 pages devoted to the Proxy pattern had maybe 2 pages I could use
and 68 that I don't think I could translate into C#.
Also, the compound pattern chapter delved into the MVC pattern in such a way
that it was hard to see the interplay of patterns.
What is especially good for Java programmers was not so good for me and C#.
Another star lost.

Only with reservations Would I recommend this book to other C# programmers.
For maybe 16 of the patterns (excluding the 9 summarized and Proxy),which the author says are the most commonly used,readers will gain a greater understanding compared to that gained from the C3DP book. The crossword puzzles are a nice change of pace for a technical book. Still, I need more. I have not not read the GoF book, but maybe I will now.