Customer Reviews

The Design Patterns Smalltalk Companion

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book gives you a better understanding of the patterns than in its original version (the GoF one). I am not a SmallTalk programmer but a 9 years C++ one. At work I had to use the GoF book and never liked reading it. In contrast to this, the SmallTalk companion is easy to read and you can understand the patterns within the first few lines of their description. Take the Bridge pattern and compare their discussions in the two books. If you really like the Gof one then buy it. But according to me, it would be a big mistake buying the GoF in favour of the SmallTalk companion. Trust a C++ programmer :-)

I bought this book because of the unresolved questions I had after spending so many hours exploring the GoF original book. I am an experience C, C++, and Objective C programmer, not a Smalltalk guru at all. And I found the GoF very confusing and intimidating. My current projects these days are written in Java (I miss Objective C). I looked for a book that would cover the pattern catalog in Java because I was really questioning the purpose of some of them in that language. Creating some mechanism to overcome the C++ language is somewhat understandable, but why bother with Java. Take the prototype pattern for example: "...It's (the prototype pattern) less important (to use it) in languages like Smalltalk or Objective C that provides what amounts to a prototype..." (page 121) Sure, ok, but what about Java? Can you give me an example on how it would benefit a language that doesn't really require it like Obj C, or even Smalltalk? Then the sample code refers to the maze example but not much material is given here. I bought several books with Java and Design Patterns in the title but was very disappointed with the beginner level these books approach this problem. The titles are seductive but the content is not that great. I don't need another ADOO (I've read Larman's book already. Get it if you are new to OO BTW.) So I ended up getting that book as a last resort. And you know what? It's great. I program in Java all day (and sometimes all night, sigh...) and this book spends more time on my desk than the GoF original one. So, if this comments remind you some of your experience, you should give this book a try. And this book lighted up another bulb in my brain: I ended up downloading Squeak and prototyping in Smalltalk some of my projects just for the fun of it, but that's a side effect I guess ;-)

I found this an exellent book. The original design patterns book drew its examples from C++ applications. I could see a use for the patterns in C++, but I thought most of them would not have been necessary if the code had been written in Smalltalk.

This book did an excellent job of showing how and where the patterns could be used in Smalltalk applications. The authors also extended and clarified many of the pattern so that they were simplier to understand. The book is more than a companion to the GOF book; it is an enhancement of it.

I've read the original Design Patterns several times and always felt like I was missing something. I don't know C++, and honestly don't want to learn it. Patterns are supposed to simplify coding; how could they when they seem so complex? I now understand that Patterns ARE simple; it's C++ that's complex (compared to Smalltalk). This book is much more than a rehash of the old text. It clearly explains the Patterns, showing TRUE Smalltalk implementations with all the variations you could want. Great care is taken in explaining how Smalltalk features change the implementation and usefulness of the Patterns. Now I get what everyone has been raving about.

This isn't a Smalltalk translation of "Design Patterns." Instead, it's a companion to that book. You'll need to read the first one to get the most out of this one. If you have read the first one, you'll find this one is better written and really casts essential light on some of the GOF material. The Smalltalk aspects of this book are really a non-issue (except perhaps showing static-typers how many hoops you don't have to use in Smalltalk). This is required patterns reading.

I bought this book because a person in my study group is asmalltalker and had it. I am primarily a Java programmer, but when Iread a pattern in this book, I flipped!

I found that the discussion of the problems that the patterns are designed to solve are really helpful, as well as a discussion as to how the pattern actually works to resolve the problem.

The code examples were not so useful to me, but after all, I don't know Smalltalk. Even the C++ programmers I work with read discussions from this book.

In all a very useful tool to help understand the 23 GoF patterns.

This book presents in an excellent way the GoF patterns from a Smalltalk perspective. By showing how the design pattern intent is resolved with a Smalltalk perspective, it provides more than just an implementation of the patterns in Smalltalk. It offers complete new views on the problems that the GoF pattern where solving. A must for every Smalltalk programmer that is not accointed with C++.

I found this an exellent book. The original design patterns book drew its examples from C++ applications. I could see a use for the patterns in C++, but I thought most of them would not have been necessary if the code had been written in Smalltalk.

This book did an excellent job of showing how and where the patterns could be used in Smalltalk applications. The authors also extended and clarified many of the pattern so that they were simplier to understand. The book is more than a companion to the GOF book; it is an enhancement of it.

In 1996, as a novice Smalltalker and Object designer in college, I read the GOF Patterns book. The potential power of patterns were immediately obvious but the concepts of applying them in practical terms was not!

This book presents the GOF patterns from a slightly different perspective and its examples of practical applications, code snippets and references to the various Smalltalk dialects was invaluable and "tied up a lot of loose ends" for me.

The book is a perfect companion to the original GOF patterns book and I feel it will stand in its own right as a valuable patterns resource. As such it should become part of any Object designers personal reference library.

Congratulations and thanks to the co-authors.

I'm studing Smalltalk at University under Advanced Object Oriented Design course and this book is a brilliant lecture for me. Easy to understand and comprehensible examples.