[ 2006-June-23 21:37 ]

It is obvious that this book has made an impact on the practice of programming because the term "design patterns" has entered the vocabulary. When working on a large software project, chances are good that someone will either mention some of the specific patterns in this book, or use the term in a general sense. I finally got around to reading it, after having it on my "to read" list for years. Frankly, I was somewhat disappointed. I felt like all the material was pretty familiar to me already. In retrospect, that is exactly the point. The authors set out to codify the existing practice of object-oriented design. One decade ago, when this book was first published, many of the concepts they described were unfamiliar. Today, they are well used.

In summary, I would not recommend this book to an experienced programmer. However, it would be fantastic for someone who has mastered the syntax of a programming language, but does not yet have a good sense of what makes a good design. In particular, I would recommend that they skim through the Applicability parts each time they are trying to decide how to design a set of new classes, as it could be a big help.