design patterns

jhw posted on Saturday, September 29, 2007

Can anyone recommend a good book on .net design patterns. I have not had a lot to do with them a need a good starting reference to understand them. I am looking at Design Pattern Framework^TM http://www.dofactory.com/Framework/Framework.aspx which seems like a good patterns source code reference though I don't know as that it will explain the patterns in depth.

 

Thanks

Heath

Professor Rotwang replied on Monday, October 01, 2007

It depends on what sort of level and presentation you are after, but I found the Head First book "Design Patterns" very good. Normally I prefer a something that is more of a reference, where I can look up facts quickly, but this is an enjoyable read. Others may find it too basic, and much of the OO principals were hardly new to me, but the discussions around why a pattern was a good idea, despite sometimes appearing to be over complicated, I found very useful. It is Java-based, however, which may not suit, but tbh if you can read c# or vb.net then Java is straight-forward.

The original gang of four book (Design Patterns - Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Gamma et al.) is still a valid reference, though not quite so easy to digest, and not exactly the complete story - things have moved on a little since this was published.

For me, when I need a reference, I tend to use the web, especially the dofactory site - quick to search and to the point.

HTH, The Professor.

bassplayer replied on Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Professional Design Patterns in VB.NET:
Building Adaptable Applications

By Tom Fischer, John Slater, Peter Stromquist, & Chaur G. Wu
ISBN: 1-59059-274-3

www.apress.com