From: Robert Dober <robert.dober@...>
Date: 2007-09-28T17:46:42+09:00
Subject: Re: Confession: I never learned CS

On 9/27/07, Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@gmail.com> wrote:
<snip>
> 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.
>
I know I might be off a little bit, but I'd rather recommend a book of
a different friend of your's "Smalltalk Best Practices" by Kent Beck.
I know it is not about Design Patterns but Micro Patterns, I know it
is not about Ruby but about Smalltalk.
Anyway Kent calls Ruby Smalltalk in disguise for some reasons, I am of
course referring to the "Smalltalk beating Java and being called Ruby"
saying.

Honestly I am only through the half of the book but there is just no
item so far I would not apply to Ruby.

This book is a must read anyway, gotta read *all* of his books ;)

Cheers
Robert
-- 
I'm an atheist and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know
except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for
other people.
-- Katharine Hepburn