Design Patterns
Yesterday I started reading ‘Design Patterns,’ a 1994 book written by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides. The book identifies 23 design patterns that can be applied when writing software and discusses their pros and cons.
In the introduction, the following line struck me: ‘One thing expert designers know not to do is solve every problem from first principles. Rather, they reuse solutions that have worked for them in the past.’
Obviously I’m not an expert designer. I often work from first principles and I don’t have a stack of solutions that worked for me in the past. I might benefit a lot from the experience of others and this book gives some access to such experience. It’s a keeper.