What are the best resources for design patterns and their uses? [closed]

Answer 1

The definition and original answer is the origin of the concept, in Design patterns. This book deals with the concept at a very theortical level, rather than the management speak that has infiltrated the area. Their view is that design patterns are just names for common idioms; they enumerate some and justify their positions.

They avoid the "What design pattern should I use" type of question, instead dealing with problem as "Am I naturally stepping into a well known area? If so, can others experience help me?". Design patterns, to me, are not like prefab components you glue together to make a solution. They are just guidance repositories for when you come across a situation similar to one others have countered, and give names to allow people to refer to the general situations in conversation.

Answer 2

I would go with the Gang of Four's Design Patterns book myself

Answer 3

I agree with these references, but there are not newbie friendly. To quick start learning design patterns the easy way :

Head First : design pattern

Then your can check the more advanced books once you got the big picture (a lot of practical examples ;-))

Answer 4

I couldn't agree more with the comment above. I use design patterns where I can but always rely on the rest of my team to truly understand the benefits of a particular pattern. Otherwise you end up with ugly code and a lightweight wrapper that somewhat resembles the pattern.

As an aside http://www.developer.com has a few articles a month that pertain to design patterns and their applications. Good luck!

Answer 5

I think I would have to recommend Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code.

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Plenty of examples of how to implement sensible use of patterns.

Answer 6

Everyone's using patterns all the time. They just might not know it. Even a simple thing like 'iterate over a list' is a pattern.

I think the best way to incorporate patterns into your work cycle, is just to use them, and to refer to them by name when discussing them and when commenting your code. Hopefully, this will result in a spread of knowledge.

So, say for example, you've spotted that what your doing is a great fit for Observer. You say to your colleague "Hey, this will be really easy to do if we make this object an Observer, and this object its subject."

Either your colleague will understand right away -- that's patterns saving you time -- or you get to educate them, and next time you mention Observer they'll understand right away.

And at the same time, you're spreading the knowledge, and they'll spot opportunities to use the new patterns they've learned from you. This goes both ways of course. Next time it might be them teaching you a new pattern.

All of this does rely on your colleague not being the type who nods and pretends to understand something when they don't. You do need them to say "Hey, you mentioned Observer, I don't think I know what that is."