« Next NM trips planned | Main | Boeing pen »
February 17, 2006
Software patterns
Today I attended a training/workshop on design patterns taught by Alan Shalloway. I was pleasantly surprised with the class. Shalloway has literally written the book on the subject, but he also proved to be fantastic at group speaking.
I had some experience with design patterns, but I have not used them much. The class really brought together practical uses of pattern with other techniques such as agile programming, test-driven development, scrum planning and so on. If you are a software person, you have probably used or at least heard of most of these techniques. None of these techniques are that difficult to understand, but it takes getting in the right mindset to properly use them together. For instance, what has been hard for me in the past was trying to find one pattern to match a problem perfectly. Luckily I think I got over that today.
Anyways, for those of you interested in getting some pretty good information, Alan Shalloway is the CEO of netobjectives, and all the information is at http://netobjectives.com/. Some of my favorite parts of the training today were the discussions of specific solutions. I doubt that will be found on the site, but the core information is there. If you have a chance to take one of the courses offered though, I highly recommend it.
Posted by layla at February 17, 2006 10:03 PM
Comments
He wrote a book about the subject. He's not one of {Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides} :)
Have you read his book? I'm curious how it compares to some of the similar books out there. The amazon.com writeup of it makes it sound like an aigle/XP book that includes patterns for extra buzzword compatability.
That might be a bit harsh, but makes the point. I'm not an agile/XP believer in any way, being a fan of more rigorous design-time work. I understand that your employer is squaarely on the XP wagon and it seems to work there (all possible jokes here being ignored).
Unrelated to this, is there any chance you and Dan could install some auto-markup stuff for comments? Markdown or Textile come as plugins for MT, I think.
Posted by: Bill Weiss at February 19, 2006 11:41 AM
Yeah, I'll see what I can whip up.
Posted by: milkman at February 19, 2006 1:26 PM
I have the gang of 4 book and his book. I have to say that I have just read the parts of each that I have felt I needed in the past.
What impressed me most was actually talking to him. I can't yet judge the book comparisons though.
Posted by: layla at February 19, 2006 1:29 PM