Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns (Paperback)

by Kent Beck (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This book presents a set of patterns that organize all the informal experience successful Smalltalk programmers have learned the hard way. Understand these patterns, and you can write much more effective code. Understand the concept of Smalltalk patterns and why they work. Then learn patterns for working with methods, messages, state, collections, classes and formatting. Walk through a development example utilizing patterns.Smalltalk programmers, project managers, teachers and students -- both new and experienced.

From the Publisher
The real-world style guide for better Smalltalk programming. This book presents a set of patterns that organize all the informal experience successful Smalltalk programmers have learned the hard way. When programmers understand these patterns, they can write much more effective code. The concept of Smalltalk patterns is introduced, and the book explains why they work. Next, the book introduces proven patterns for working with methods, messages, state, collections, classes and formatting. Finally, the book walks through a development example utilizing patterns. For Smalltalk programmers, project managers, teachers and students -- both new and experienced.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR (October 13, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 013476904X
• ISBN-13: 978-0134769042
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #596,629 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for SmallTalkers, October 9, 2000

By	Dennis Decker Jensen (Denmark) - See all my reviews

Although I've never used SmallTalk and have read only a couple of on-line introduction chapters on Dolphin SmallTalk, I had no problems reading it and applying the patterns in another language like Java, C++ or Python.

Let me put it simple: If you want to learn to think in objects, don't just read the book, do it!

If you have read "Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code" by Martin Fowler et al. then you'll recognize the thougts presented in this book. In this book the patterns are close to refactorings with a bunch of simple, good, readable and understandable advices to just about every little thing - it's more than a simple style guide: You'll always get told what the raison d'etre is - and if not, where to look for it.

I'm currently using the book as a reference for style of OOP. From a teaching point of view, the book is also extremely useful. Kent Beck likes to ask quistions in a heuristic manner. Because of the simple approach to every day experiences of developing, all the way down to the experiences of beginners, you won't have any trouble answering these quistions. In fact you'll probably start asking quistions to yourself likewise because of the magnicifent way this mind trick works for your way of thinking in objects (or otherwise).

As a developer - doing these patterns - you'll be amazed at how much little things can mean in a much bigger and more complex context, when you develop systems applying OO - especially huge systems.

I am compelled to repeat: Don't just buy it, do it!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful coding guidelines for beginners and the experienced, February 25, 1999

By A Customer

Before I read Kent's book, my team had a Smalltalk coding guidelines document, a boring, cluncky text that didn't seem to help beginners write good code (mostly there so project quality plans could reference it). After I read Kent's book, I wrote a few team-specific points in the margins and declared it our new coding guidelines document.

Kent's book is a pleasant, readable mix of the obvious that beginners need to know and the clever that experienced Smalltalkers can still learn from. I was surprised at the absence of Booby Woolf's strategy for classifying instance variables (as identity, status or cache; see The Smalltalk Report, June 96) and at how little there was on protocol naming. Otherwise, it seems to cover almost everything at its chosen level (which complements, instead of competing with, that of books like the Smalltalk Design Patterns Companion).

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't let the title scare you away, January 27, 1999

By	John Vlissides ([e-mail]) "vlis" (Hawthorne, NY) - See all my reviews

Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns isn't just for Smalltalkers---there's something here for everyone who programs. Kent's insights, experiences, and raw wit are as entertaining as they are enlightening. If you have any passion for programming, in any language, buy this book. Read it. Live it.