New to start with Design Patterns

Question

Possible Duplicates:
which resources would you recommend for learning object oriented programming (C#)?
Learning/Implementing Design Patterns (For Newbies)

Hello everyone, I was working in Information Technology for few years. I was planning to learn designing / design patterns and wes really confused where to start and how to start (books/links/suggestions). Even though I I get lot of information from internet, but still I hope this is the right plase to ask the question and could get the right answers/guidance. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I can highly recommend Head First Design Patterns - it's an excellent read and a great place to start.

EDIT: The GoF book is great, but I think it doesn't make as good an introductory text as the Head First book. Move onto GoF from there.

Answer 2

As with most arbitrary concepts, a good place to start is the Wikipedia page which will give a fairly decent broad overview, and also has convenient links to further reading.

Answer 3

• Classical GoF (Gang of Four) book: Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object Oriented Software

• http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?DesignPatterns

Answer 4

The best resource is still the classic Gang-of-Four book. This is truly a must on the subject.

On the web yout can find a good reference and introduction on Sourcemaking.

Answer 5

You can get Head First Design Pattern which is very nice or the gang of four book:

Gamma, Helm, Johnson & Vlissides (1994). Design Patterns (the Gang of Four book). Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-63361-2.

There are also nice books depending on what language you'll be using such as:

• C#: Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#

• Ruby: Design patterns in Ruby

If you want to start right away, take a look at the wikipedia page and some of the most common patterns. You can also check out this interesting article on the subject.

Answer 6

Apart Head First Design Pattern, already recommended several times and the GOF's book Design Pattern, a classic you should really read, I would strongly recommend Thinking in Patterns, by Bruce Eckel. It has a pragmatic approach that saved me a lot of headhaches. You should try it.

Answer 7

Before spending money on books I would recommend Wikipedia's excellent design patterns page. Also for something different Google for "design pattern screencasts" or search for "design patterns" on YouTube. Getting the same information presented differently often helps the penny drop.

The Gang of Four book is the definitive text on the most well known patterns but is not that easy to read and with C++ examples not everyone's favourite.

The Head First Design Patterns text is far more accessible but only contains a subset of the Gang of Four patterns.

The most important thing is to understand where and why a particular pattern is useful. Afterwards search the web for implementation examples in the language of your choice and experiment until you "get it". Understand one pattern before moving on to the next. Everyone understands some patterns better than others (and there are hundreds of lesser known ones).

Just keep plugging away.