Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design Software Patterns: Amazon.co.uk: Alan Shalloway, James R. Trott: Books

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"One of the great things about the book is the way the authors explain concepts very simply using analogies rather than programming examples–this has been very inspiring for a product I'm working on: an audio-only introduction to OOP and software development."

–Bruce Eckel

"...I would expect that readers with a basic understanding of object-oriented programming and design would find this book useful, before approaching design patterns completely. Design Patterns Explained complements the existing design patterns texts and may perform a very useful role, fitting between introductory texts such as UML Distilled and the more advanced patterns books."

–James Noble

Leverage the quality and productivity benefits of patterns–without the complexity! Design Patterns Explained, Second Edition is the field's simplest, clearest, most practical introduction to patterns. Using dozens of updated Java examples, it shows programmers and architects exactly how to use patterns to design, develop, and deliver software far more effectively.

You'll start with a complete overview of the fundamental principles of patterns, and the role of object-oriented analysis and design in contemporary software development. Then, using easy-to-understand sample code, Alan Shalloway and James Trott illuminate dozens of today's most useful patterns: their underlying concepts, advantages, tradeoffs, implementation techniques, and pitfalls to avoid. Many patterns are accompanied by UML diagrams.

Building on their best-selling First Edition, Shalloway and Trott have thoroughly updated this book to reflect new software design trends, patterns, and implementation techniques. Reflecting extensive reader feedback, they have deepened and clarified coverage throughout, and reorganized content for even greater ease of understanding. New and revamped coverage in this edition includes

Better ways to start "thinking in patterns"
How design patterns can facilitate agile development using eXtreme Programming and other methods
How to use commonality and variability analysis to design application architectures
The key role of testing into a patterns-driven development process
How to use factories to instantiate and manage objects more effectively
The Object-Pool Pattern–a new pattern not identified by the "Gang of Four"
New study/practice questions at the end of every chapter

Gentle yet thorough, this book assumes no patterns experience whatsoever. It's the ideal "first book" on patterns, and a perfect complement to Gamma's classic Design Patterns. If you're a programmer or architect who wants the clearest possible understanding of design patterns–or if you've struggled to make them work for you–read this book.

From the Back Cover

"One of the great things about the book is the way the authors explain concepts very simply using analogies rather than programming examples—this has been very inspiring for a product I'm working on: an audio-only introduction to OOP and software development."

—Bruce Eckel

—James Noble

Leverage the quality and productivity benefits of patterns—without the complexity! Design Patterns Explained, Second Edition is the field's simplest, clearest, most practical introduction to patterns. Using dozens of updated Java examples, it shows programmers and architects exactly how to use patterns to design, develop, and deliver software far more effectively.

Better ways to start "thinking in patterns"
How design patterns can facilitate agile development using eXtreme Programming and other methods
How to use commonality and variability analysis to design application architectures
The key role of testing into a patterns-driven development process
How to use factories to instantiate and manage objects more effectively
The Object-Pool Pattern—a new pattern not identified by the "Gang of Four"
New study/practice questions at the end of every chapter

Gentle yet thorough, this book assumes no patterns experience whatsoever. It's the ideal "first book" on patterns, and a perfect complement to Gamma's classic Design Patterns. If you're a programmer or architect who wants the clearest possible understanding of design patterns—or if you've struggled to make them work for you—read this book.

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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

Excellent 12 Sep 2004

By C. Jack

Format:Paperback

A superb book. The explanations were clear and every time I thought of a question the author immediately answered it which just shows how much thought went in to the book.

As someone who, stupidly, never really looked at patterns before I have to say this book was perfect. If you take the time with some of the chapters, particularly the one about the Bridge pattern, then you can come up with the actual pattern before the author gives it. You can do this because the authors give you the information and context you need to work out what the solution will be.

The only slightly annoying point about the book is that the self satisfaction of the authors sometimes gets in the way of more important matters, however that doesn't spoil a good book.

I would recommend that anyone who enjoys this book goes on to look at the books written by Craig Larman, Robert C. Martin and Joshua Kerievsky. They all cover object oriented design and patterns in more detail.

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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

Fantastic! EVERY software engineer should have this book!. 19 July 2005

By Bandidoz

I would strongly recommend that *every* student or practising software engineer should read this book, even "experts" in object-oriented or pattern-based programming.

The authors essentially teach the reader how to design software better. They walk the reader through various approaches to a systems design example throughout the book, finally culminating with the approach of combining software patterns with CVA (Commonality and Variability Analysis). It is just so obvious but no-one ever seemed to think of it before.

From reading this book I now have a lot more clarity in thinking through the analysis and design of software and am producing implementations that are far more maintainable. For that I cannot thank the authors enough.

In summary : GET THIS BOOK!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Too wordy 15 Dec 2010

By J. Garrard

I bought this instead of the GoF book because I had read reviews that the GoF book was too impenetrable, and this book was far more friendly. This was a mistake.

It certainly has a lot of explanation in it, but verbose does not necessarily mean clear. I found that the explanations were just too long winded for me to grasp the essence of each pattern. I got lost in the rambling.

I gave up when I reached the Bridge pattern chapter. This comes directly after the Strategy pattern chapter and although the patterns overlap to a very great degree it immediately starts describing yet another example problem domain in excruciating detail. As soon as I started reading the problem I thought, OK, so we can use the Strategy pattern here, it's exactly the same problem. The Strategy is never mentioned in the entire Bridge chapter. The same problems of using inheritence to solve multiple heirachies are labouriously explained once more, and the Bridge is given as the solution, which seemed identical to the Strategy. I ended up with no clue as to the difference between the two patterns after trolling through an incredible 32 pages on the Bridge!

I have since obtained a copy of the GoF book and was staggered to find that just by looking at the Bridge class diagram and reading the 2 page Motivation section I was instantly able to understand the difference. The GoF book seems far clearer in every respect. I'm not sure if this is because I've been a developer for many years, it may be that beginners find it more obscure, but I found the concise, clearly seperated explanations brilliant.

So for me as an experienced developer, the GoF book wins easily over this one. YMMV.