Design Patterns
Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides
80 people recommended it in 23 threads, 2010–2025.
36 commenters pushed back on it — worth reading the threads.
What people on Hacker News said
This is entirely the point behind the book – so we can identify these common patterns and talk about them at a higher level.
The DP book is a catalog (to gain awareness) and not a checklist (that you must do).
The DP book gives them formal names and hence, an attempt at shared vocabulary.
There are lots of good books on design patterns, but you should really read the one that started it all.
Just because GoF was originally meant to be descriptive does not mean that it can't be interpreted as prescriptive, especially by your stock work-a-day software engineer or peter-principle'd software architect.
Despite whatever intentions the GoF may have had, by giving these patterns a name, they in a sense codified them, giving people something to point to when justifying otherwise poorly thought out design decisions.
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