Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)

I found the case study very helpfull. The patterns explained in a very clean way, so I recomand every developer that is interesting in design patterns, refactoring etc to read it.

This fascinating and extraordinarily clear text guides you in such a persuasive way through the world of software design patterns that once you start reading it you won't want to stop until it is over.

I don't have much formal programming training... much of what I've learned has been through self study. As a consequence, many times I'm not sure if I know something or not. Usually, I try to convince myself I know something but a tiny bit of doubt remains in the back of my head. This is the case for me with respect to object oriented programming. I thought I understood what object oriented programming was about, but I would only use it for certain parts of my programs (using perl, where things are not necessarily object oriented). Also, I would have trouble understanding large OO'd software packages. Reading this book really caused things to click in my mind and I realized what exactly object oriented was all about, how to use object orientation, how not to use it, etc.

Some of those who gave this book low ratings might reasons from their situation, but for me this book helped a lot. I'll agree that the concepts are abstract and difficult, but the authors set up different paths thru the book depending on the readers goals. I think a beginning programmer would get blown away by this book, while experts might know it all from good teachers or painful experience. For me however, this book gave me a bunch of "aha!" moments as the authors explain situations that make programming tricky and explain the solutions.

Also, the book is nice and solid w/ two bookmark ribbons (at least for the hardcover version). Very high quality and not so expensive compared to college textbooks.

Excellent explaining about the design patters even for those who are new to it.
The only problem is that the samples are in C++ wich should be expected because the book was printed in 1995.

10 years ago this book revolutionize the way programmers see object oriented programming. At that time, it was essential to read it. In fact, I remember that employers were testing candidate knowledge on design patterns at job interviews. Today, I consider this book as a classic that I would recommand to read for everyone that has just learned object oriented programming but it is less essential than it used to be as design patterns knowledge has spread in the litterature and you could even learn about them just by working on existing code. That being said, this book is still very valuable even for people that already know about patterns. I am on my second reading after many years of using the design patterns and I am picking up new insights that has escaped my attention at the first reading.