[fwd] Smalltalk design patterns

[Theodore C. Belding]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 97 13:25:15 -0500
From: address@hidden
To: address@hidden, address@hidden, address@hidden
Cc: address@hidden, address@hidden
Subject: Introducing the Design Patterns Smalltalk Companion


Special Note for April 30:

The file "week1.zip" containing a PKZIPPED version of our chapters on abstract
factory and composite are now available.  They will remain available for FTP
until May 7.

Background:

Fellow Design Patterns devotees and Smalltalk programmers,
     
Sherman Alpert, Bobby Woolf and I are currently in the process of writing a book
entitled "The Design Patterns Smalltalk Companion" as part of Addison-Wesley's 
new Software Patterns series (edited by John Vlissides).  The following excerpt 
(from the Preface) explains our goals in writing this book:
     
"This book is not an introduction to Smalltalk or software design or design 
patterns. It assumes you have some experience with object-oriented design and 
programming, preferably in Smalltalk. You should already be familiar with terms 
like "abstract class" and "polymorphism" and "inheritance" and know what it's 
like to develop code in a Smalltalk interactive development environment.
     
The Smalltalk Companion is a companion to Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable 
Object-Oriented Software by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John 
Vlissides It assumes that you are familiar with the material in Design Patterns,
that you've heard terms like "Factory Method," "Composite," and "Strategy," but 
that you'd like to understand the material better.
     
The Smalltalk Companion is not a standalone book; it is designed to be read 
along with Design Patterns. We have striven not to repeat material that Design 
Patterns  already explains well. Rather, we intend to add to and clarify the 
ideas that Design Patterns already expresses. We will reference the other book 
frequently; you should too."
     
We have completed the first draft of the book, and we would now like to ask for 
your help.  We would like to get some feedback on the draft chapters to find out
how well they address the needs of our market.  Each week for the next several 
weeks I will post two new sample chapters to the following FTP site:
     
host96.ksccary.com
login (anonymous)
password (your email address)
     
The root directory of this address will contain a single PKZIPPED file 
containing the chapters (in postscript and .pdf form) for that week.  Please do
not ask us to make the files available in any other format -- we don't have the
time to try to address every potential file format.  If you do not have a
postscript printer to print the postscript files, we encourage to download the
freely available adobe acrobat reader to read the .pdf versions.
     
If you have any comments, feel free to post them to this forum.  However, we 
also ask that you copy us on any messages about the Smalltalk Companion, so that
we can be sure to receive your feedback.  We would encourage you to look at the 
chapters from our book even if you are not a Smalltalk programmer, since we feel
that the book has a lot to offer to the patterns community at large.  Likewise, 
if you are unfamiliar with Design Patterns, we would first encourage you to 
obtain a copy of the book Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented 
Design by Gamma, Helms, Johnson and Vlissides.  After having perused this book, 
we would then invite you to examine our chapters to help you gain a better 
understanding of how to apply these patterns in Smalltalk.
     
Thanks for your time.  We look forward to receiving your comments.
     
Kyle Brown
Knowledge Systems Corporation
address@hidden
     
Sherman Alpert
IBM TJ Watson Research Center
address@hidden
     
Bobby Woolf
Knowledge Systems Corporation
address@hidden




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