From: Wilson Bilkovich <wilsonb@...>
Date: 2007-09-29T00:50:38+09:00
Subject: Re: Confession: I never learned CS

On 9/28/07, Robert Dober <robert.dober@gmail.com> wrote:
> 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 ;)
>

The book's correct title is "Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns", and I
would like to second the recommendation. Gianni Jacklone turned me
onto it a couple of years ago, and I really found it helpful.