Head First Design Patterns: A Brain-Friendly Guide 1st Edition

by Eric Freeman (Author), Bert Bates (Author), Kathy Sierra (Author),

1,099 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0596007126

ISBN-10: 9780596007126

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What’s so special about design patterns?

At any given moment, someone struggles with the same software design problems you have. And, chances are, someone else has already solved your problem. This edition of Head First Design Patterns—now updated for Java 8—shows you the tried-and-true, road-tested patterns used by developers to create functional, elegant, reusable, and flexible software. By the time you finish this book, you’ll be able to take advantage of the best design practices and experiences of those who have fought the beast of software design and triumphed.

What’s so special about this book?

We think your time is too valuable to spend struggling with New concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First Design Patterns uses a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.

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From the Publisher

What you’ll find in Head First Design Patterns, 2014:

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The core design principles and design patterns—everything you need to take your programming skills to the next level.	The same great visual explanations and brain-friendly learning style you’re used to from Head First, with exercises and challenges so the design patterns really sink in.	Updated code! The code for all the examples and exercises now compiles and runs with Java 8.

About the Author

Eric Freeman recently ended nearly a decade as a media company executive, having held the position of CTO of Disney Online & Disney.com at The Walt Disney Company. Eric is now devoting his time to WickedlySmart.com and lives with his wife and young daughter in Austin, TX. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Yale University.

Elisabeth Robson is co-founder of Wickedly Smart, an education company devoted to helping customers gain mastery in web technologies. She's co-author of four bestselling books, Head First Design Patterns, Head First HTML and CSS, Head First HTML5 Programming, and Head First JavaScript Programming.

Bert Bates is a 20-year software developer, a Java instructor, and a co-developer of Sun's upcoming EJB exam (Sun Certified Business Component Developer). His background features a long stint in artificial intelligence, with clients like the Weather Channel, A&E Network, Rockwell, and Timken.

Kathy Sierra has been interested in learning theory since her days as a game developer (Virgin, MGM, Amblin'). More recently, she's been a master trainer for Sun Microsystems, teaching Sun's Java instructors how to teach the latest technologies to customers, and a lead developer of several Sun certification exams. Along with her partner Bert Bates, Kathy created the Head First series. She's also the original founder of the Software Development/Jolt Productivity Award-winning javaranch.com, the largest (and friendliest) all-volunteer Java community.

Product details

Series: Head First
Paperback: 694 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (October 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780596007126
ISBN-13: 978-0596007126
ASIN: 0596007124
Product Dimensions: 8 x 1.4 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Customer Reviews: 1,099 customer ratings
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8 in Object-Oriented Software Design
- #8 in Java Programming
- #9 in JavaScript Programming (Books)

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4 star		14%
3 star		7%
2 star		2%
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Dave Norris

Old dog learning new tricks

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2018

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I am old. I did my undergrad work before patterns were a thing and worked on legacy systemsy whole career. I found myself on a new project with new technology and new grads. I did not understand what they were talking about with factories, Singleton's, dependency injection, etc. Now I do. I am not an expert but I know the vocabulary and the reasons for what we are trying to do. I can also implement patterns. I certainly lack their expertise but I can talk the talk and begin to walk the walk. Head First methodology is excellent. If you have read other titles you know that already. If you don't, then let me recommend the format.

25 people found this helpful

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Shridhar Kumar

Simplified Exposition of Great Programming Concepts!

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2017

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I love this book for its exposition of programming concepts in a simplified and humorous presentation. I also recommend that, as an appetizer, readers should first watch the video tutorial presented by the authors of this book (Eric and Elisabeth) at Lynda.com. That video tutorial covers seven of the most widely used patterns present in this book.

23 people found this helpful

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bluepearl

I haven't been overwhelmed by the Head First series so ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2018

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I haven't been overwhelmed by the Head First series so far. They teach some code, but they don't necessarily teach you what you need to know in the same way that a college course teaches code. So you learn to do a few things, but the logic structures are sort of missing.

I suppose it's a decent intro book, but not what I'd want for a more serious study.

10 people found this helpful

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Joe Doe

A little disappointed, not as much coverage compared to GoF book

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2016

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I'm a little disappointed, to be honest. If you know what the Gang of Four is, this might not right for you. I was looking for something a little less dry than their book, but this seemed a little too introductory and only covers a fraction of the patterns in that book. On the positive side, it's very readable and easier to remember the examples.

16 people found this helpful

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Nick R.

Excellent!

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2018

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So far, I love this book!

The beginning of it goes into detail about how the book was written to provide maximum comprehension and retention, which is cool. I skipped this part and go to the meat of the book starting with the duck example. Their method is working very well because the Strategy pattern couldn't be any clearer. I understand it well enough to even implement a variation of the pattern in Ruby.. And I also spent time thinking about how to implement this in Javascript. I'm moving on to learning about the Observer pattern.

I've tried many times to understand many of these patterns but, again, a single well written book trumps reading 1000 articles across the web.

It helps to have a strong understanding of OO basics before diving into patterns though. So in addition to being a well written book I believe I'm also just very ready for this topic.

The book says it's not for people who don't use Java or C#, but I ignored that and I'm glad I did.

6 people found this helpful

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thinkingotherthings

Great explanations and examples

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2020

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I've been programming in data analysis roles for a while, but I do not have a formal background in computer science or software engineering. I found this book extremely helpful for explaining design patterns in understandable language, with great code examples that are annotated along the way; they also preempt questions that naturally arise, and clarify how the patterns tie into underlying OO design principles.

Another book I read first is Clean Code, which I would also recommend, but Head First Design Patterns is a nice addition because the detailed code examples really help cement my understanding.

The examples are all in Java, which I don't know well at all, but with just knowing the bare minimum Java I was able to understand nearly all of the examples.

The cover of this book does a major disservice to it – I almost didn't get the book because the cover makes it look like a joke, but it is in fact a great book that does an awesome job of explaining design patterns.

2 people found this helpful

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Game_Devin

Fun for everyone! Even fans of C++ and C#!

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2018

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First and foremost, I love this book. It's very well written and it gets its points across in plain English.

I bought this book in October of 2018 and received the 2014 updated version (which I guess just updated some of the Java specific references for Java 8). The code examples are done in Java, but if you know C# (or really any object-oriented language), the meat of the code examples will be easily readable to you. If you have experience with any object-oriented language, then a lot of the concepts will also be very familiar to you. Even when they go into a 1-2 page discussion about a Java specific thing, you can still just view it through a conceptual lens and follow along with the discussion.

There is a good use of humor, pictures, abstract analogies, and concrete examples to help convey the lessons of each chapter and while this is like a 500-600 page book, I burned through it in a single weekend because it was not only insightful and instructive, but it was also a very entertaining read.

If you're trying to learn more about design patterns and incorporate them into your process, definitely add this book to your arsenal. It's great for learning and good for a quick reference guide as well.

4 people found this helpful

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Jorgen S

All images are squashed on the Kindle edition, affecting readability - get paper version instead

Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2016

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This is strictly a comment for the Kindle edition. I find the formatting of the pictures unreadable, and that this has a very negative impact on the usability of the book. IThe images, which are core to the text, are centered at 50% width of the page. This requires me to manually zoom in each time I want to see something clearly, a process which I find rather cumbersome to say the least.

I've tested this both on a (high resolution) Samsung Galaxy S2 Tablet (Android Kindle; see screenshots) as well as my old Kindle DXG. Forget about seeing them on the OG Paperwhite.

This issue is not unique to this book, however I do wish the authors would take the time to ensure their content is readable on the Kindle editions.

48 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Would recommend for someone looking to move on from the basics

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2019

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Really good for anyone looking to get to grasps with object-orientated ideas. I don't personally feel like the book should be taken as gospel (I can see why some more advanced programmers complain about it!) but it's definitely worth a read for anyone wanting to get a head for OO programming.

2 people found this helpful

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Pietro Zuco

Must have

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2018

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If you program in Java, this is a book you must have. It explains most common and important development patterns. You will be asked about these patterns in interviews and in your daily job. Even if you are not a Java developer, the patterns are almost the same in other OOP languages

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MAV

Read this as your first book for Software Design Patterns.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2014

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This is a must have book for any beginner or mid level software engineer. This book makes complex topic of design pattern very easy. 10 on 10 for this book for innovative way of story telling and pictorial depiction of design pattern. Once read and understood, Second and third readings are very easy to read and revise. I recommend this book highly if you are preparing for job interviews. Although JAVA is used in all the code examples these patterns are equally applicable to all mainstream programming languages, such as C++, C# etc.
If you are serious design patterns, I would still recommend reading this book before you jump on to GoF book. This gives you a head start and very good milage in all the important design patterns before you dive in to more detailed GoF patterns.

3 people found this helpful

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Ojs

Brilliantcaba

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2010

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Great, faboulous, brilliant!

This book was exactly what I was looking for.

It envolves you from its beginning and keep you reading about design patterns, object oriented principles, rubber ducks, MVC, ... until the end of the book.

An excellent way to learn GoF's design patterns, the quality of the content keeps on really high until the last page, something very difficult in these kind of books. Funny, straight forward, clever...

I've read the original Design Patterns book by Erich Gamma, and honestly, it was very difficult for me to understand it. Now, after getting a clear vision about design patterns thanks to Head First Design Patterns, I'm going to give it a go again..

Looking forward to reading another book from Head First series.

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S. Hyles

Wonderful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 26, 2010

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Having been a professional software developer for over 25 years I have read many books and they all suffer from the same symptoms - how do you get something technically demanding across in a way that makes you want to carry on reading.

This book is the answer. The GoF style-books, whilst technically outstanding, are incredibly hardgoing. This book, with its focus on teaching and learning makes the whole experience self-rewarding.

If you want to learn about design patterns, my advice would be, get an excellent grounding from this book, and then tackle the GoF tomes.

One person found this helpful

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Fergus M

Good introduction, a bit bloated though..

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 29, 2012

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If you're completely new to the topic then this book may be for you. It's written in simple and clear English, but it stills conveys all the required information regarding quite a large number of patterns. That said, perhaps it's biggest downfall is the way in which things are "dumbed down" for the user...

The relevant knowledge is passed on, but it's passed on via the use of incredibly long and drawn out examples which are supposed to be entertaining - but actually just prove to be irritating. I understand the reasoning behind the examples, and sure - they made reading it more enjoyable (well, for the first 5 minutes) - but they also acted to fill pages with needless dialog!

The book has an underlying storyline which also acts to add bloat, but for some readers this could act as intended; allowing them to 'take more in'.

I think I'm just not suited to the Head First format (that said this isn't the only HF book I have on my shelf) but can see just how this approach could help those that are.

Regardless of this, I still managed to walk away with a firm grasp of various different patterns - more so than I would've if I went straight to the GoF book!

For that reason alone, this book deserves 3/5. Add on another point for the amount of patterns this book covers, as well as the depth it goes into.

This book misses the 5/5 mark simply because it felt bloated with some of the story line and examples.

4 people found this helpful

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Joanne

I have recommended this book to others to learn design patterns

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 11, 2017

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This book explained clearly what the design patterns are, when to use them and made it clear to only use them when necessary to prevent over-complicating code. It was interesting to read as well. I have recommended this book to others to learn design patterns.

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BenExUK

An excellent textbook teaching design patterns in a clear

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 2, 2017

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An excellent textbook teaching design patterns in a clear, yet informal manner. Patterns are examined from all angles and the repetition is used to reinforce each pattern so that you feel you not only understand it, but will be able to recall and apply it for efficient and effective software development. Item arrived on time and in good condition.

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Kamil Kuklinski

From the "Must Read" list

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2018

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This book really made me understand the topic in hand deeply. I wasn't really sure what design patterns are, when to use them, which one to use under which circumstances and after reading and practicing for a bit it became a second nature. Really glad I made this purchase.

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D. Deasy

Great stuff

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 5, 2013

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I overheard a colleague talking about an example from this book and convinced me to give it a go.
I had read and kept a copy of the original Gang of Four Design Patterns book and I really liked the idea of design patterns, but the GoF book is a bit dated and very dry and academic. This book is much more readable and it uses very memorable examples. And the use of Java throughout suited me just fine.

I am keeping my copy. It is covered in highlighter and it is very useful when I want to review and use one of the basic design patterns.

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chris

Essential starting point

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2014

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This is a really good starting point - the examples are good, the pages aren't too wordy, and there's a few learning styles at play to make sure it sticks.

I would also recommend watching some youtubes afterwards to get things from another perspective, but if your colleagues are talking about singletons and factories, and your quietly sat thinking what the heck are they on about, this should help you at least understand the concepts.

A great book, one that I recommend to everyone learning OOP principles - I mainly do PHP, and whilst this book is in Java, you will not struggle to follow along.

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Mirko

Great introduction book to design patterns

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2019

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I was trying to find a easy, introductory book to design patterns, subject which is not so easy to grasp. "Head First Design Patterns" was perfect as introductory book. Easy to understand with lots of illustrations and examples. It follows the format of "Head First" series books which, I think, is amusing, simple but hits the spot.

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Addidy

eli5 methods of teaching should be standard

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2019

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If you're a primarily self-taught programmer that hasn't learned programming patterns yet I would say it's borderline essential to get one good learning resource on the topic.

As usual, the head first series present highly complex topics in the most ELI5 package possible.

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Neil Talbott

A very readable introduction to design patterns

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 17, 2017

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For anyone that's struggled to get into the very fry 'Gang of Four' book on design patterns, I'd recommend this book. It's much more readable and provides a light-hearted but nonetheless technically adept introduction, without getting too bogged down in UML diagrams.

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M M.

Clear and concise

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 17, 2019

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Complimentary to current coursework in a clear and concise manner.

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