Rating: 
Summary: Glad to find I'm not alone about this book
Review: After reading the GOF patterns book I felt I was ready to tackle on more patterns and bought this book. This book made me feel dumb for a while for after repeated readings I still couldn't understand what the author is talking about. Finally decided to research on what other people thought about this book. Glad to find mostly negative comments in this review section for it proves i'm not dumb.
Rating:
Summary: A book of extraordinarily low value
Review: Around three years ago, I joked with a collegue of mine that a sure way to make a fortune would be to write a book which included the words "Java" and "Patterns" in the title. It would matter little, I argued, what the book contained. Just the title and a half-decent graphic on the front page would suffice.It seems to me that both Mr Grand and his publishers Wiley are attempting to cash in on this very idea. The problem is that the joke was a bad one in the first place, and that it is now being made far too late in the day. I hope that the software development community is sufficiently aware that it won't be taken in by this outrage.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe an OK book for VERY beginners to programming in Java
Review: Despite volume One's syntactical and logical errors as pointed out by some of the reviewers, I actually liked volume 1. This sequel was so disappointing to me that I returned it as soon as I could. If you're looking for more *design* patterns, then this is NOT the book for you. If you feel that a "Dialog" is a pattern (that's right, any plain-old dialog) or if you've never used a Java interface as a holder for constants, then give this book a try; otherwise don't bother. I actually didn't find a single pattern that was interesting to me. It was either stating the obvious or completely useless. There was a whole section of "Testing" patterns at the end of the book which I didn't even bother to look at. I really don't understand the author. Did he run out of *useful* patterns to document. The only folks that might benefit from this book are extreme beginners to Java and programming in general. For the rest of us, there are other patterns books.
Rating:
Summary: Not Recommended - Summary of Elementary Programming Concepts
Review: I will be returning this book tomorrow. If I compare my expectations (ie. a "design patterns" book) with what the book contains, it is one of the worst books I've ever seen. Things like "grey out not available menu items" and "use switch statements instead of nested if/elseif" are simply good programming techniques that we all learn; they are not what we come to know as "patterns". It isn't so bad to have a book like this, but it should not be called a patterns book, because this is highly misleading. One who buys a patterns book isn't expecting this kind of elementary information. To be fair to the author, it is the type of material that makes it not acceptable, not how it is written. It presents good programming standards and guidelines, but a 20 page book could accomplish that with simple examples, without repetitive and unnecessary information. If you want a patterns book, don't even consider this.
Rating: 
Summary: Calling them patterns is a stretch, but still useful
Review: If you're looking for more patterns you've come to the wrong place. The "patterns" discussed in this book are typically 1-2 pages and have names like "Symbolic Constant Name" and "Intention Revealing Method". More "tips and tricks" or "good coding styles" then patterns. His first book holds more to the definition of patterns.
Rating: 
Summary: Fluff, Fluff, Fluff....
Review: In my opinion, code examples are just as important as the text that explains it. Unfortunately, the author didn't think so. Going through the book and visiting the companion website to get the source code to run was a waste of time. For the most part, the code didn't work at all! It didn't matter what compiler version you make use of; I used 4 different versions of the JDK. A book is supposed to save you time when you are trying to learn. This book doesn't fit the bill. I still had to go to the web in order to get working examples of the patterns mentioned in the book. I'm sure the author know's what he talking about. I just think that he should prove it by writing programs that are tested and that compile before shipping it off in a book.
Rating:
Summary: Design pattern II
Review: Just like movies. The first book was a hit but the sequel was dissapointing. I would prefer wait for one more year and get something worthy buying. Very dissapointed. I was expecting either more patterns, more application using pattern on first book, or just digging deeper into patterns previously discussed. Too bad. I will not be waiting for volume III.
Rating:
Summary: A matter of expectation
Review: My impressions:
The introduction (UML short and SW Life Cycle) is excellent. I especially liked the collaboration diagrams. The 'GRASP' (patterns) present good guidelines that can improve your overall class design. (Which classes to introduce, how to distribute the tasks to be performed ...). To get the idea, it is of advantage, when you have previously designed a larger project yourself (seeing that there are many solutions that will result in different gains and tradeoffs). The GRASP help you to explain why. 'GUI Design' improves your sensitiveness in creating user-friendly GUIs (choosing the appropriate interface design, presenting not more than 7 chunks, how and when to deliver feedback, ...). The chapters 'Organizational Coding' and 'Code Robustness Patterns' explain techniques how to write clean and maintainable code (like the usage of adapter classes, constants in interfaces, finally statements ...). Those will already be known by todays more experienced programmers. But only because of this, they will neither harm anyone nor will they be trash anytime! (Sorry, this refers to very rude other reviews - but it really has to be told.) From the 'Coding Optimization Patterns' i liked double-checked locking and the (maybe already known) lookup table technique. The last chapter 'Testing Patterns' is the best general introduction into testing i've seen so far (black, white box, unit, integration , system, regression, acceptance and clean room testing). Conclusion:
When you come from the GoF book searching for further explanations buy 'Patterns in Java Volume 1' (notice the much improved 2nd Edition!), otherwise you'll be disappointed, here.
The problem that Volume 2 has, is probably the (missed) target group. But it is not a bad book and Mr Grand knows what he writes, believe me.
Rating:
Summary: What the heck........
Review: Please read the Composed Method Pattern in this book. My God! what in the world the author was thinking when he called this a Pattern. I think this book should re-called by author, and evry buyer should get thier money back with interest.
Rating:
Summary: Stating the obvious - A very poor sequal
Review: The author has tried to create a book from very few usable patterns by padding with an irrelevant introduction for a second volume (First fifty pages) then filling the centre section with mind numbingly obvious GUI and coding patterns. The last section on testing patterns gave me the feeling that the only thing the book missed was a 100 page "Introduction to Java" and a "Scraping the bottom of the barrel" pattern. The books lack of pattern names at the top of the page and a sensible method of quick access to patterns plauged the Vol. 1 as well. Experienced programmers (Ie, those not learning the basics of Java) will not find this book useful enough to justify the purchase and will be very disappointed if they expect design patterns of Gamma, et al standard.
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