I wanna broaden my horizons and learn about these here programming design patterns.
Using the search I can find only one recommendation from Stinky back in 2003 -
Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
Is that still the best book to get or does anyone have anything else to suggest?
For tax reasons I need to buy it this week... 
Sheesh, I thought this was about patternmaking. disappointed.count++
Buy that one. all the others are just wanky take-offs on the original text.
If you've got questions post them here 
Basically design patterns are catalogued standardised ways of getting around the limitations of object oriented programming while keeping most of the benefits in place. They're invaluable as long as you remember exactly what they're for
sounds good then.
Just before I buy... has anyone other than Stinky read that one and understood it? just checking...
I think Stinky is on his own when it comes to hardc0r3z pr0ngramming, there's not many here that'd be able to keep up with him
Originally posted by: DontBogartMe sounds good then.
Just before I buy... has anyone other than Stinky read that one and understood it? just checking...
I borrowed Stinkies copy for a while... and no... I wasn't able to understand it.
To be honest... I wasn't able to understand it.... at first... and I still don't to a large degree BUT it's been invaluable to have a sounding board in the form of someone who does understand it. I find it easier to understand if you can verbalise it...... I know it's a horrible thought but your best bet may be to befriend a java programmer. :eek:
_Originally posted by: Arsis_I know it's a horrible thought but your best bet may be to befriend a java programmer. :eek:
shivers
Well my goal really is to get a better understanding of how to put together OOP apps. I'm beyond the stage of 'class Animal' ... 'class Dog extends Animal'... I got through my Flash flipbook project fine, all class built and it works well, but I couldn't see the problems coming, and struggled to work out how I should be structuring things. Maybe that'll come with practice... but I think it might be good to learn from a reliable source too. And all this talk of design patterns makes superficial sense to me, and I'd like to delve deeper. I thought that through the process of learning about Design Patterns I may also pick up some clarity in general OOP design.
Maybe I'll just go for it and pester you lot with my questions...
Getting comfortable in a programming paradigm takes time and practice. I'm quite comfortable with OO but it took a while for it to sink in. Right now I'm going through the same thing with Functional Programming and the progress that I make is directly proportional to the amount of code I write in that style and the time spent reading about it.
Give it a go, code like crazy, and ask questions
I know where you're coming from arse, I can only learn so much from reading. It's a slow process for me and I find most text based stuff prone to an error here and there or at least it is for me because of the backwards way I interpret things. I'm a hands on sorta bloke and learn very quickly if someone can show me though and if I can ask them the 100 pesky questions. Unfortunately I don't have that luxury and keep with the 2 - 3 weeks it takes me to learn what most others learn in 2 - 3 hours. Most times it's a process of elimination, I learn what doesn't work until all that's left it what does work :shrug:
yah.. I hears ya. I advocate self teaching at every opportunity... so... even without a mentor at the ready IMO you'll learn a shite load more than if you attended programming/design school. So long as you eventually get to the gotchya stage does it really matter how long it takes to get there?
I'm in a very fortunate situation where I have a couple of awesome mentors at hand... and my peskiness has yet to result in a stabbing.
ordered!
I also ordered Pattern Hatching : Design Patterns Applied in case the other one got too heavy ...
I'll look the biz on the beach this summer with my pasty white frame and these two tomes under my arms 
Ha! I used to love sitting at the pool at my old apartment in Seattle with my Geek-Tomes
I liked 'Head first design Patterns' but I have not managed to apply the concepts.
head first is a great intro to patterns. you should keep the original GoF book around as a reference anyway. Pattern Hatching is interesting. Some good insight. Also Design Patterns Explained is a good companion to GoF. A bit easier read, more examples, different viewpoint on things.
I got Moock's Essential AS 2.0 at the same time (with GoF and Pattern Hatching). I've soldiered through the parts dealing with class writing in AS2, but now I'm in the part dealing with patterns it's becoming a bit of a struggle...
*mantra no pain no gain no pain no gain no pain no gain
hmm the summer of 2006, the year I put 'learn about design patterns' on my to-do list and got the books ready to read on the beach... also turned out to be the year we discovered Sudoku....
Originally posted by: DontBogartMe
Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
up to page 10 on that bad boy now! Man, the phear that book put into me the day I clapped eyes on it has taken some shifting.
Anyhoo, the first pages have been interesting and just reading the descriptions of the patterns has put ideas into my head about new ways to approach OOP. Hopefully I'll get a little further into it this time.