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Summary: For Java programmers who need patterns, look no further
Review: A number of my instructor colleagues have commented for years that someone should write a Java patterns book. None of us took up that challenge, obviously. Stephen and Olav did; their book finally brings to new and intermediate programmers a gentle but stimulating introduction to the subject. If your programs compile and run, but you have a feeling there are better, more sophisticated ways to compose Java, you're right: read this book and find out about them.The patterns catalog in this book walks through the feature development of a Personal Information Management (PIM) program. Patterns are used to impose a general problem domain to each feature described (e.g., conference scheduling). The authors then show how the classic pattern might be modelled and implemented in Java. If you've never gone from a problem statement to a language-neutral design solution to code-writing before, this process can be slow going the first few times. The authors address this by separating features so you don't have to read the catalog in order. There's no CD-ROM, so the source code is printed in full in the back of the book. Bad publisher, no biscuit. Just give me the CD, alright? Yes you can download the code by ftp, but my network life is controlled by firewall [people]. I need an HTTP tunnel, please. I take the complaints that professional methodologists will have with this book with a grain of salt. This book was not written for their review and consensus; it's written for people who want to learn this subject and who allow the view that methodology is an art, not science and certainly not rooted in absolutes. That said, you may some day disagree with a design interpretation or two in this book, but you'll see them nonetheless applied thoughtfully to practical examples. Another nice touch: the authors point out several examples in the JDK where these patterns have been applied, so if you want pointers to real-world examples using 'production' source code, there's no better place to look than the JDK. It's some of the most intensely scrutinized code ever.
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Summary: First Java Patterns Book with real examples!
Review: After a long wait, finally we have a patterns book with real Java examples. Most books give template examples but this one leaves no scope for complaints! Covers most commonly used patterns, not just J2EE patterns.
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Summary: Read Head First Design Pattern Instead
Review: After reading this book, I did not see the author tried any new way to explain how, when and why to use design patterns. I don't think the book is worth the moeny I spent buying it.
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Summary: It's a terribly badly written book, total waiste of money
Review: Each pattern is explained with an "Introduction" which is so badly written. Most patterns are explained with the assumption that you have basic knowledge of a Personal Management System (PMS) which is used as an example through out this book. So if you just wanna look up a pattern and see if they can elaborate on it, then you're out of luck, cuz you'll need to constantly have an idea of what a PMS is in order to understand the pattern they're trying to explain. It's terrible. They use this PMS example to explain each pattern. The writers make the assumption that you committed this PMS example of theirs to memory. If you wanna try this book, go to a bookstore and check it out, pick a pattern that you're familiar with, look it up in the book and you'll see how frustrating this book is. I already have the gof book but I wanted something to supplement it as an introduction, this book didn't do the job. I saw some good reviews on "Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design", I haven't read the whole thing yet but the explanation on "Bridge" was pretty good, atleast it didn't require me to know what PMS is.
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Summary: It's a terribly badly written book, total waiste of money
Review: Each pattern is explained with an "Introduction" which is so badly written. Most patterns are explained with the assumption that you have basic knowledge of a Personal Management System (PMS) which is used as an example through out this book. So if you just wanna look up a pattern and see if they can elaborate on it, then you're out of luck, cuz you'll need to constantly have an idea of what a PMS is in order to understand the pattern they're trying to explain. It's terrible. They use this PMS example to explain each pattern. The writers make the assumption that you committed this PMS example of theirs to memory. If you wanna try this book, go to a bookstore and check it out, pick a pattern that you're familiar with, look it up in the book and you'll see how frustrating this book is. I already have the gof book but I wanted something to supplement it as an introduction, this book didn't do the job. I saw some good reviews on "Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design", I haven't read the whole thing yet but the explanation on "Bridge" was pretty good, atleast it didn't require me to know what PMS is.
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Summary: Understandable Patterns
Review: Finally a book about Patterns written for java with clear examples.
After reading some design pattern books this one is a relief for the mind.
The writers clearly know what they are talking about and have the ability to make it all easy to understand.
The use of the same application throughout the book makes it even clearer. Not everything is as it should be. Some pieces of code are missing and some pieces are there twice. That's out of the control of the writers. This surely is a good book to start with if you want to know more
about java design patterns. Should there be a second edition I will buy it too.
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Summary: Java Applied Patterns as Supplement to GOF
Review: I got the book before I had read the GOF book and found it quite useful. After reading the GOF book I found it even more so - I like the simpler examples and the fact that they are done in Java. Some people will not like the code reprint at the end of the book (about the last half of the book) - however I do, as it is quite convenient for referencing. Found the UML diagrams that were downloadable from the web reference site quite helpful. The major problem with the book are the errors! The first pattern I looked at (Visitor) had an extraordinary number of errors. In the text it gave the methods one name and used another name in the code listing. Two of the classes for this pattern the code was simply duplicated from a third class. The downloaded examples did have the correct code. Be nice if there was a CD - but this is no major issue. I would give it a 2 star at best, due to the errors, but if you can sift through the errors I think you will find it a nice supplement to the GOF book hence 3.5 stars (if I could).
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Summary: the best one on the market
Review: I have waited for a good pattern book in jave for years. This is the best on the market so far. Because the big picture has been explained very well in GoF book (new book authors, please don't repeat it in other books;-), I was looking for the low-level implementation oriented book. There are several "middle-level" books (copied big picture and no solid/complete code - please do not show me some snipets, I am not that smart ;-) Up
1) this book contains a complete java implementation for each pattern
2) it also contains some patterns used in java itself, which is a great plus!
Down,
1) I cannot find a website to download the samples, I may be wrong, but I don't think the book points to a working website either by today 1/15/2002.
2) Some typo need to be correct but they are obvious. Readers should have no problems with them.
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Summary: Bad as a reference
Review: I just came back from lunch at a rival bookstore and gave this book a browse. I was disappointed. It's a real cover-to-cover book, not one you can just grab to look up a pattern. For example, the introduction to the Flyweight pattern, the first one I looked at, begins, "Many objects in the Personal Information Manager can be edited..." I am left to think, what the heck is the "Personal Information Manager"? The next one I read, Decorator, refers to information in the section on the Composite pattern. I imagine the rest are like this too. So unless you keep the specs of this Personal Information Manager in your head all the time, you're going to have problems picking up the context when you attempt to "browse" a pattern. The Mark Grand "Patterns in Java" books present each pattern in a self-contained context and is constantly useful for me.
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Summary: Think twice about adding this to your cart!
Review: I purchased this book with the intent of broadening my knowledge of patterns after reading the GOF book (about 3 times), the Mark Grand series and Java Design Patterns [Cooper]. In one of his first examples Abstract Factory, a structure diagram is presented in canonical form; i.e. class a, class b, class c.... This didn't bother me except that his example code was a bit trivial and was not presented in terms of the structure diagrams. OK, I can read and figure things out, but if you are going to present the diagram and working examples, at least put the example code into the presented structure diagram, fair enough? The next pattern that really bothered me was his implementation of Factory Method. He once again presents a generic structure diagram and does not present his own code in the same format.
The reason is that his sample code does not fit into the diagrams presented. This to me is a red flag! He does however provide explanations behind his implementation of the pattern. In the case of Factory Method his Contact class is both a concrete creator and concrete product. This I initially found confusing! I had to turn to the back of the book to figure out what he was trying to accomplish. So in short several pattern start with a structure diagram and example code that doesn't fit into the presented diagram. I would remove the generic structure diagrams and provide ones in context of the examples. Make my job, as a reader, simple! Unless you have a way of reverse engineering the code, you're stuck with pen and paper. I believe I have griped enough, here are some reasons to buy the book. He does present some nice explanations of the patterns, they are implemented in Java and it will help broaden your knowledge of design patterns. Would this book be my first choice if I were shopping a design patterns book for Java? Answer: NO! There is a new book coming out "Design Patterns Java Workbook" by Steve Metsker that I have previewed. In my very humble opinion, the author has a much better understanding of design patterns and the examples are in the context of an entire application; which is actually very amusing to follow. In contrast, all of the examples are presented with precise UML diagrams in terms of the code snippets provided.
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