Head First Design Patterns
This is it. This is the best programming book yet written. It has the dorkiest cover possible for a programming book, and if you were to flip through it in a bookstore you’d put it back on the shelf. This book looks different. This book is different—it is better than everything else out there.
Even in its introduction, the authors admit, “We know what you’re thinking. How can this be a serious programming book? What’s with all the graphics? Can I actually learn it this way?” The answer is an emphatic yes. In my last weblog entry, I said that I remember virtually everything I read in this book, even though I read it over six months ago. This is because the book teaches you about software design patterns, when other books merely tell you about design patterns.
In the middle of last year, I didn’t really understand software design patterns. The phrase came up so often that I kind of absorbed a weak understanding of what patterns were about. But I didn’t truly understand them, and I certainly never applied them. Then, as a birthday present, a book arrived in the mail. In the card, the sender said that I liked programming and I had a soft spot for pretty ladies, so a computer book with a blonde babe on the cover seemed to be the perfect present for me. She was right. It was the perfect present, because it is the perfect book: Head First Design Patterns.
I read this book from cover to cover. How many programming books are so interesting and so easy to read that you can actually make it the whole way through? I have 29 programming books on my shelf beside me, and there may be a couple more in my bedroom. But only two of these books were so well written that I read the entire book. (The other was Designing with Web Standards.)
Anyway, I think you get the picture. This is an excellent book! If you want to learn about design patterns, buy this book. If you want to improve your programming, buy this book. If you want to see how a computer book should be written, buy this book.
My only disappointment is that it uses Java as its language for code samples. My disappointment is not because I happen to use C#, but because the other books in the Head First series look at Java specifically. Oh, how I would love for the Head First team to write some .NET books. I have twelve books about .NET, and I feel sure that I don’t understand .NET half as well as I would understand Java if I read just those three Head First Java books. I will say it again, the Head First approach is to teach you the topic, not to merely tell you about it. And that means you actually learn the topic, and not merely know about the topic.
Charlie’s final design uses a number of design patterns, thanks solely to the Head First team.
by Alister Jones | Next up: Design Patterns in C# →
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