From: Rick DeNatale Date: 2007-09-28T06:31:47+09:00 Subject: Re: Confession: I never learned CS On 9/27/07, Jay Levitt wrote: > On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:57:08 +0900, Ilmari Heikkinen wrote: > > > On 9/27/07, Jay Levitt wrote: > > > >> So - any recommended reading? What books will help me change the way I > >> think about data? > > Wow! Thanks for the many great recommendations, folks. Some comments: > > * GoF: Yes, I have this one, and it's a classic; I've actually read both of > the Alexander books cover-to-cover while I was building a house. But I > also find that many of the GoF patterns are either unnecessary or greatly > simplified in Ruby. I know there's at least one project to codify the Ruby > equivalents, and I look forward to more work in that area. I've got to agree here. I am/was friends with all four of the GOF and I hope that the three survivors won't be offended, but it's really a C++ book, and I fear that it has done as much harm as good for those trying to apply it to languages with less draconian (or is it baroque) design. Although Ralph put in some Smalltalk references they were mostly in the way of commentary when they were trying to do similar things in C++. Patterns are all about picking paths due to the problem and situation at hand, and for better or worse, the programming language is a big part of the situation at hand. Most of the GOF book deals with the issues raised by statically typed oo languages, and aren't as portable as one might think. -- Rick DeNatale My blog on Ruby http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/