Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-oriented Software / Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Iterative Development, 2 Volume Set - Hardcover

Erich Gamma

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1405837306 ISBN 13: 9781405837309

Publisher: Pearson Education, 2005

Synopsis

Design Patterns is a modern classic in the literature of object-oriented development, offering timeless and elegant solutions to common problems in software design. It describes patterns for managing object creation, composing objects into larger structures, and coordinating control flow between objects. The book provides numerous examples where using composition rather than inheritance can improve the reusability and flexibility of code. Note, though, that it's not a tutorial but a catalog that you can use to find an object-oriented design pattern that's appropriate for the needs of your particular application--a selection for virtuoso programmers who appreciate (or require) consistent, well-engineered object-oriented designs.

About this title

Review

With the profusion of technologies, it's rare to say that a particular book is required reading for developers. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object Oriented Software is one of those indispensable texts for anyone who develops software using objects. This CD-ROM edition contains a hypertext version of the book, along with additional features that make it easy to use patterns in your own programs.

The CD-ROM works with any Java-enabled browser (Internet Explorer 4.0 and Netscape Communicator 4.0.) It includes the full text of the printed book along with the richness of hypertext links to get the most out of patterns quickly. (Two versions of the text, one for 640 x 480 resolution and one for higher resolutions, are provided.)

Patterns are higher-order designs, which occur repeatedly in object-oriented design. The heart of this title is the "pattern catalog" of 23 basic patterns, ranging from creational patterns, such as Factory and Builder, and structural patterns, such as Facade and Flyweight, to behavioral patterns, such as Command and Mediator. The CD-ROM details each design element along with reasons to use it and sample code in Smalltalk and C++. (With the online version, you can even cut and paste sample code into your programs.) You can use the Java search engine to search the CD-ROM for keywords, and the online version lets you cross-reference patterns easily. All in all, the Design Patterns CD is an appealing new version of one of the most essential texts for object-oriented developers.

From the Inside Flap

This book isn't an introduction to object-oriented technology or design. Many books already do a good job of that. This book assumes you are reasonably proficient in at least one object-oriented programming language, and you should have some experience in object-oriented design as well. You definitely shouldn't have to rush to the nearest dictionary the moment we mention "types" and"polymorphism," or "interface" as opposed to "implementation" inheritance.

On the other hand, this isn't an advanced technical treatise either. It's a book of design patterns that describes simple and elegant solutions to specific problems in object-oriented software design. Design patterns capture solutions that have developed and evolved over time. Hence they aren't the designs people They reflect untold redesign and recoding as developers have struggled for greater reuse and flexibility in their software.Design patterns capture these solutions in a succinct and easily applied form.

The design patterns require neither unusual language features nor amazing programming tricks with which to astound your friends and managers. All can be implemented in standard object-oriented languages, though they might take a little more work than ad hoc solutions. But the extra effort invariably pays dividends in increased flexibility and reusability.

Once you understand the design patterns and have had an "Aha!" (and not just a "Huh?") experience with them, you won't ever think about object-oriented design in the same way. You'll have insights that can make your own designs more flexible, modular, reusable, and understandable - which is why you're interested in object-oriented technology in the first place, right?

A word of warning and encouragement: Don't worry if you don't understand this book completely on the first reading. We didn't understand it all on the first writing! Remember that this isn't a book to read once and put on a shelf. We hope you'll find yourself referring to it again and again for design insights and for inspiration.

This book has had a long gestation. It has seen four countries, three of its authors' marriages, and the birth of two (unrelated) offspring.Many people have had a part in its development. Special thanks are due Bruce Andersen, Kent Beck, and Andre Weinand for their inspiration and advice. We also thank those who reviewed drafts of the manuscript: Roger Bielefeld, Grady Booch, Tom Cargill, Marshall Cline, Ralph Hyre, Brian Kernighan, Thomas Laliberty, Mark Lorenz, Arthur Riel, Doug Schmidt, Clovis Tondo, Steve Vinoski, and Rebecca Wirfs-Brock. We are also grateful to the team at Addison-Wesley for their help and patience: Kate Habib, Tiffany Moore, Lisa Raffaele, Pradeepa Siva, and John Wait. Special thanks to Carl Kessler, Danny Sabbah, and Mark Wegman at IBM Research for their unflagging support of this work.

Last but certainly not least, we thank everyone on the Internet and points beyond who commented on versions of the patterns, offered encouraging words, and told us that what we were doing was worthwhile. These people include but are not limited to Ran Alexander, Jon Avotins, Steve Berczuk, Julian Berdych, Matthias Bohlen, John Brant, Allan Clarke, Paul Chisholm, Jens Coldewey, Dave Collins, Jim Coplien, Don Dwiggins, Gabriele Elia, Doug Felt, Brian Foote, Denis Fortin, Ward Harold, Hermann Hueni, Nayeem Islam, Bikramjit Kalra, Paul Keefer, Thomas Kofler, Doug Lea, Dan LaLiberte, James Long, Ann Louise Luu, Pundi Madhavan, Brian Marick, Robert Martin, Dave McComb, Carl McConnell, Christine Mingins, Hanspeter Mossenbock, Eric Newton, Marianne Ozcan, Roxsan Payette, Larry Podmolik, George Radin, Sita Ramakrishnan, Russ Ramirez, Dirk Riehle, Bryan Rosenburg, Aamod Sane, Duri Schmidt, Robert Seidl, Xin Shu, and Bill Walker.

We don't consider this collection of design patterns complete and static; it's more a recording of our current thoughts on design. We welcome comments on it, whether criticisms of our examples, references and known uses we've missed, or design patterns we should have included. You can write us care of Addison-Wesley, or send electronic mail to design-patterns@cs.uiuc. You can also obtain softcopy for the code in the Sample Code sections by sending the message "send design pattern source" to design-patterns-source@cs.uiuc.

Mountain View, California - E.G.
Montreal, Quebec - R.H.
Urbana, Illinois - R.J.
Hawthorne, New York - J.V.

August 1994

0201633612P04062001

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson Education
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1405837306
• ISBN 13: 9781405837309
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English