All new developers should read this book

Head First Design PatternsI read this book a number of years ago when I was a junior developer in my first job. At the time I had about one years experience developing web applications (Classic ASP, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML) using knowledge I’d gained at University and anything I could find on the internet. Keen to keep up with the latest technologies our development department decided to use, the then newly released, Microsoft ASP.NET. To help smooth the transition, from Classic ASP to ASP.NET, we were sent on a “suitable” week-long training course. Eager to employ our newly acquired skills we returned from the course and went to work hacking together ASP.NET applications in the same, mostly non object-oriented, fashion. Soon after, a new senior developer joined our team and upon recognising my limited object-oriented approach, and complete lack of design pattern knowledge, suggested I read this book.


I highly recommend this book if you have:


  • Little or no object-oriented, or design pattern, knowledge. 
  • Some, or even a good, understanding of object-oriented principles, but want to architect your applications to better accommodate changes and new features. 
  • A desire to express how you implemented your solution, in a vocabulary that can be easy understood, without the need for going into specific details (obviously this would require your audience to be familiar with design patterns and their benefits). 

The book uses fun, non-techie, scenarios to explain various principles, which makes it a very easy read and keeps your attention from start to finish.

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