Opened my eyes to the full potential of patterns

I've been coding for 10 years. I only use object oriented languages (C++, Java or C#). I have read the classic Design Patterns by Erich Gamma etc.. It is a wonderful reference and primer for design patters. However, Design Patterns Explained takes the foundation laid by Gamma and show you how to practically apply it to code. The keyword I would give this book is practical. The ideas presented revolutionized the way I code. Everytime I find myself copy and pasting logic I think back to what this book taught me and I find a way to abstract/generalize the logic so that I only have one copy of it. This pays tremendous dividends in development time and maintanance. Now that Java and C# are adding templates I will be able to do even more.

My only caveat is that this book is not for beginners. If you don't know how to program or you haven't programmed for long this book will fly right over your head.

Other Reviews

• Where's the complete code of this book?
• An Excellent Tutorial
• Best design patterns book (after gof)
• Second Edition a disappointment
• Opened my eyes to the full potential of patterns