Design Patterns, or Why Am I Just Learning This Now?!

So, at the recommendation of a good guy I know I am reading “Head First Design Patterns”. So far I’ve read the first two chapters and ZOMG WHY HAVEN’T I READ THIS SOONER?!

This book is great. If you want a good, easy read (easy to read and easy to understand), this is it. Its sprinkled with just enough humor to keep it from getting boring (if you’re the type to get bored by “technical” books, which I’m usually not), and presents its information in real-life scenarios. The book even does a great job of anticipating and addressing concerns and questions the reader might have. In fact, a specific statement I’ve made about design patterns in the past, namely that “they’re just the use of OO, right, so what’s the big deal?”, is addressed very early on in the book and has left me wondering how I ever got by before.

Keep in mind, this is not trying to be a review of the book. This blog is supposed to be about my development experiences, meaning both the applications and programs that I develop as well as my own personal development as I learn, grow, and become better at my craft. Recently, I’ve just been hashing out code on my project at work and writing a bit of elisp which I discuss in another blog, so the only thing of interest that I have to share at the moment is my amazement at just how much I’m learning in this book and how much more (oh, so much more) I have to learn.

So thank you, Chris. Thank you for introducing me to this book.

I also need to thank my good friend and co-worker Michael Dwyer for reading the book first and provoking me to move it to the top of my reading list. On an unrelated note, he has also started up his own development blog. Feel free to check it out. A good portion of it is sort of a personal diary of what he’s working on (either personally or at work), but there are already some tips and opinions in there that are worth reading.