Rating: 
Summary: Such a Shame
Review: When I saw this book at Borders bookstore I consulted it rapidly and I bought it immediately. Patterns, Java and UML: what's more than this? After various reading, I and other five software developers of my company are still reading and translating in Java the C++ examples of Go4 Design Pattern. Unfortunately (for us) your book rest in peace on the bookshelf....:-(( We tried various times implementing patterns throughout this book but we was confused by your explanations: It's impossible understand the essence and needings of those patterns and their use. We tried looking at the code examples shipped with the book but results was worst than before... Did you notice that your example of STATE pattern uses more switch and variables than the Procedural examples ? Why I need an ABSTRACT FACTORY if I use a constant for my factory method ? I was very disappointed to find simply: not -working code examples. How do you think I can use a code without running it, I mean your examples doesn't have a main() method !!! In all the patterns examples source code there is no trace about a possible simple client or user class of them. We spent one hour trying to run Your STATE pattern. Where is a stupid Dialog box that use the DirtyState class ? I mean stupid, simple and little class, but with the correct call sequence of methods. Have you never thought that someone that take your CD and goes on the source code examples , does that because he didn't understood the book explanation and he want run a ready to go dummy example. All the examples lacks of "HowTo" concept that is the final target of a book so called catalog.... A more generally mysterious thing to me, is the race toward the last release of every product. Do you used JDK1.2, marvelous inner classes and other stuff because are you concerned about the "obsolescence" of your book ? Go4 Design Pattern is still valid after five years. Now I'm here in USA for some months working in a very large Java project. They uses a JVM JDK 1.1.4 compliant and only AWT not Swing ! I use borland JBuilder for developing process and the latest release of it uses JDK1.1.6 and Swing 1.0.1 Our applications most of the times are installed on RISC machines like IBM AX or DEC Alpha and they support "only" JDK 1.1.7. We have applications installed on 400 PC designed two years ago with only JDK 1.1 and AWT interface: they are still working and they need to be maintained. This is the Industrial standard reality for who works in real projects,not the latest release after one week it come up !!! I don't think we are using Java (only) for colorful applets on our web pages. Instead we are using it for the promise: "Write once run everywhere". I think that customers for a pattern catalog book will be programmers involved in medium large industrial strength applications that are trying to improve their code or solve designing problems.... I don't think using the latest Java features add any values to a "Design Pattern" book. Instead make it less "understandable" from that peoples that (unfortunately, like me) spends much of their time working on real and money consuming projects. I was very upset finding how this book claimed to go so near the target and at the same time missed it in a so badly way, and it's really a shame for everybody.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware - Spammer on Board
Review: About every month or so I get spammed by this author touting his great seminars so I thought I'd give his book a shot. I guess you could say that he finally wore me down. Luckily I actually purchased the book used for $2 and still think I was royally ripped off. The book begins poorly and gets worse. Specifically, the author definitely has a pension for patronizing his audience. He speaks as though he invented Patterns and is delivering them to the masses after bringing them down from the mountains inscribed on clay tablets. Now, I'm not a guy to worry too much about a few typos here and there. After all, mistakes are made in code and text alike. However, the author's examples are not at all practical to the point of being useless and far too many of them flat out don't work!! I'm not so much upset about the measly two bucks as I am about the several hours lost trying to decipher what the author meant and working through the typos. Anyway, hopefully this review will save someone else the time I lost.
Rating: 
Summary: Full of typo errors
Review: Not as good as the GOF book, but much better than others. You'll be needing the GOF to understand plentifully the patterns. A nightmare the sea of typo errors throughout the whole book. As others reviewers wrote, the author should have paid more attention to the final draft before sending it to print.
Rating:
Summary: A lot of defects, but still a valuable resource
Review: There appears to be a flame war in a bookshop about this book, with everybody giving it either 1 star or 5. I believe the truth is somewhere in between. I'm using the book as a course text for a final year undergraduate course I'm teaching which focusses on patterns. It's far from ideal, but there's nothing out there better as far as I know. There are many typos and thing which could be explained better, but I disagree with those reviewers who claim that the author doesn't understand the subject - in my opinion he clearly does. With one exception (the bizzare characterisation of Marker Interface as a fundamental design pattern) I don't believe there's anything fundamentally wrong. I'd like to encourage those people who are complaining that it's rubbish to either write a better book, or contribute detailed comments to the author, so he can produce an improved second edition (I'll be doing the latter). It has the potential to be a very good book. I agree with those who are saying that that volume 2 is very disappointing, but reviews of that shouldn't be contributing to the "score" of volume 1.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The first time I read this book was to look up the Decorator Pattern. I went directly into the chapter and was highly disappointed by the numerous mismatches of class names found in the examples. My head was spinning after reading the chapter and gave up the whole book altogether. (I dont want to take the risk of writing another list of printing errors found in each chapter I read. I am a reader not their proofreader!!!) For example, the text refers to a name 'DoorController' but the diagram (Fig 7.28) only has 'DoorControllerIF', 'DoorControllerWrapperA', and 'DoorControllerWrapperB'. What the hell does it refer to? In Fig 7.30, the interface has 2 methods - 'Operation1()' and 'Operation2()', but all subclasses of it use the names 'Operation()' and 'Operation2()', instead. Does it mean 'Operator1()' and 'Operation()' are 2 different methods? The source code in P280 uses the type name 'SurveillanceMonitorIF' but there is no such a type ever found in the text - the closest match is 'surveillanceIF' only!!!!! This *could* be a great book provided that the author/publisher pay SERIOUS attention to the importance of consistent naming.
Rating: 
Summary: Helpful for learning
Review: If you are a hands on Java programmer and want the design patterns explained as you can understand them in code, this book is worth it. I notice other reviewers slate this book, picking up on what they consider to be "errors". Well, ultimately GOF4 is always going to be the authority on patterns but GOF4 is very dry - this book gives a practical java code explanation of the patterns. I often browse through it looking for ideas.
Rating: 
Summary: Only the Best
Review: Design patterns presented are not any one company's best solution, but simply the best proven solution regardless of product or methodology. With most vendors incorporating design patterns into their products, this book is a great introduction to the topic of design patterns and how they can fit into your Java applications.
Rating:
Summary: Better the Second Time Around
Review: I read the first edition, and this is a huge improvement-new examples really show how to apply these patterns to everyday situations. The vendor-neutral solutions make this a great book for anyone working with Java.
Rating:
Summary: Disgrace!
Review: I pity the individual whom selected this book as their first exposure to Design Patterns. A total abuse to the Java programming language or any language. After reviewing Mark's explanation of the Composite and State Patterns, they were far from "Grand". Illustrations are incorrect or incomplete; I am not sure which. The coding examples do not reinforce reusability and are incorrectly implemented. USING CASE LOGIC FOR THE STATE PATTERN! I nearly lost my lunch. On your next camping trip, take this book with you; it will make a great firelog. NOW THAT'S REUSABILITY!!
Rating:
Summary: Good book for Java developers
Review: Current average of the book is 2.5. I think this book deserves more than 2.5 points.
I also have Gof book. I think Gof is easiler to read, but many examples are UI related. This book gives me examples like traffic control and security system. I will buy it for those examples. Java and UML in the book are also a good reason to buy. Do not expect the example to run. Try to understand the idea. You need to have good Java skill and a bit UML to read this book.
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