Picked up my copy of Head First Design Patterns today (I’d ordered it in a couple of weeks ago). So far I’m loving it.

I’d been eyeing this book off for a while since reading the sample chapter for this and for Head First Java The presentation style looks like it should be childish and silly, but it is amazingly effective.

The sample chapter, for example, made me look at Decorator in a new light. I thought I knew how Decorator worked and what it could be used for, but the sample chapter offered new possibilities, particularly for decorating Command objects. In addition, it helped expose me to new ways to explain the pattern, which is always a good thing.

So, based on the sample, I made my decision to buy. I’m not looking to learn a heap from this book about design patterns themselves, but I fully expect to see a few new possibilities, plus some excellent ways to teach the patterns to others. So far, I’m two chapters in (which means I’m really three, as the sample chapter was chapter 3), and it’s living up to my expectations – the introduction alone demonstrated the power of the Strategy pattern in a new way, and at a much finer level of granularity then I had previously thought of taking it to. Before reading this, I’d never considered using Strategy to share behaviour between subclasses, for example.

Take my advice: buy this book. Even if you’re not a Java developer, pick it up anyway. Even if you think you know everything about patterns, buy this book. Even if you are one of the Gang of Four, buy this book – unless you’re Erich Gamma, because then you helped review it, and so I presume you’ve already got a copy.

Also, if you haven’t already, I strongly suggest you start reading Kathy Sierra’s blog she writes the most amazing articles (with illustrations!) Certainly, she puts a lot more time and effort into her blog entries than I do to mine.