Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - Design Patterns

Some books really don't need ratings, this is one such book. Any experienced software developer should own a copy of this book and should have studied this book. Beginners are recommended to maybe also buy Alan Shalloway's book titled Design Patterns Explained as companion read or as a primer.

Does a great job at explaining design patterns if you are willing to put in the time to read. It does have short little blips about each in the front, but to get a good idea of what's going on it definitely pays to read the sections.

There was no surprise here. This was a replacement for my original which went missing when I loaned it out. Still the definitive book on design patterns, There are others, which might specialize in whatever language you use (some ot the things the authors had to do are now natively supported in some languages)

This book gives a nice overview of what high-level abstractions to think about, mostly when writing new software. It is used extensively as a college undergraduate textbook for team-approach programming courses in order to supply a vocabulary for student discussions. Some of the concepts are outdated by now (2006), and are not domain-specific enough for some purposes, but as an overview or first approach to the subject of patterns it is the gold standard.

This is one of the great software development books, when I first read this book over ten years ago I wished I'd read it earlier in my career but I'm grateful for what I've been able to apply over the last ten years. I've purchased it again, this time on my Kindle so I can refresh on this timeless topic.

This book will forever stand as a foundation of software development. The example code is getting a bit dated, but the priniciples are the important part, and they are just as relevant today as they ever were.

Also, this book has some great foundational work that explains things like encapsulation, interfaces, etc.

The conent of the book is obvisouly classic, but I do want to complain the papers they use to print the book. They're really poor; whenever you highlight, the highlights pervade to other side of the page.

Huge amounts of knowledge and explaining how they came to be via the step-by-step evolution of an example hypothetical system. Includes discussions of pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses of different patterns. There is no one size fits all and some commonly accepted patterns are anti-patterns, but can be worth the trade-off. There is no one size fits all. All patterns are situational.

Classic. Although the patterns are exposed in a cumbersome way (Head First Design Patterns is the best for that, hands down), the entire background on patterns and the detailed rationale behind each pattern still earns this book a 5-star.

Overall the book has some good points. Some of which I will use immediately. I would however like to see some more examples of practical use of the design patterns with a focus on C++ and Python. More importantly building an API in C++ and using python bindings to have your front facing python API. Most of this I have learned on my own through experience. But overall many of the design patterns discussed are rarely used in my industry (films and entertainment). We have to script light and get things done as fast as possible. Having some good example models that are scalable are what we mostly look for in this industry. I would also say you can apply any of the C++ examples to python pretty much line for line. But it would be nice to have a python version of this book since that is the scripting language of choice these days.

I would recommend the book to anyone looking to expand there knowledge of design patterns.

This book is a great reference to have when facing design challenges. I've used quite a few patterns from it. It also provides a nice basis for some of the more modern books such as Alexandrescu's Modern C++ Design.

This book is a great reference to have when facing design challenges. I've used quite a few patterns from it. It also provides a nice basis for some of the more modern books such as Alexandrescu's Modern C++ Design.

bought this to keep on my bookshelf. its a timeless book which is always referenced. Its always good to flip through it sometimes when you hear about a design pattern that your not sure off or just need a refresher on the semantics of a particular design pattern

This was the first patterns book, this was the book that started the "patterns" movement... A must have for anyone interested in Software Design Patterns.

Contains all the essential patterns, nicely organized =)

The book has a very complex meaning concerning mechanisms supported by the object oriented programming (OOP) languages, which gives developers flexibility to improve and maintain complex applications.
Most of the examples are coded in C++ and the reader must have a very good knowledge about all OOP mechanisms (inheritance, pointers, polymorphism, encapsulation etc.)
A very useful book for advanced OOP developers!

"Design Patterns" provides an excellent introduction to design patterns through a running example using a number of different patterns. Further it provides very well-structured descriptions, diagrams, and example source code for the 20some widely used patterns in its catalog.

Could use less code example and more theory and discussion on usage. When and when not to use a design along with other related patterns is something I see missing. More theory and flexibility of use needed

This book is an classic on Design Patterns! A must read book to anyone that work with software, mainly to application programming. It have various tips about how to structure the code and after you read this book, you start to identify your own patterns from your experience with coding in different areas such as embedded systems and device drivers.

It's old - yes
It does not have examples in modern languages like Java - yes
It does not have fresh pattern like MVP - yes...

But it is an absolutely foundation of design patterns which are still in use. I come back to this book very often, still finding something important to consider.

A good start to DPs, showing their role in software architectures and providing a structured and pragmatic reference to 23 DPs.

To take the next step and deeply understand and decompose those 23 DPs, I suggest you "Elemental Design Patterns" by Jason Mc C. Smith.

The CD version is not 100% compatible with current browsers. Internet Explorer v6 reports errors on every page and it's new security features disable some CD functionality.

The Java search engine does not function in both IE and Firefox.

The content is, of course, exceptional; but the reasons for buying the CD are lost in the new browsers. Stick with the book.

Conceptually, this book is ground-breaking and makes perfect sense. There are however a few ways to do some of the things the book lays out. I WISH they would provide some sample code for each Pattern to really go in-depth and show "how to set up a factory to create some widget objects." Some are straight-forward enough but some are still only concepts to me. Maybe I just haven't come across a situation that requires those. GREAT book, easy to read for the intermediate to pro OOP developer. If re-use is your goal, YOU MUST HAVE THIS BOOK.

This is the best book on design patterns, since it has been written by the famous GoF and each one of them is an expert. It is an excellent book for anybody who wants to expand and build their knowledge on design patterns.

A highly recommended book for mid-level programmers. Design patterns are deeply explained using examples and anticipations. Baeic knowledge of C++ is needed to understand the implementation.

Disliked the low resolution of pictures with code/diagrams

It is assumed that almost any software developer or an architect has read or at least heard about this book. Your whole thinking and understanding of OOP will change after reading it. This book increments the usage of OOP at least by 1.