Preface

The material in this book began in conjunction with a Java seminar that I have given for several years, a couple of times with Larry O’Brien, then with Bill Venners. Bill and I have given many iterations of this seminar and we’ve changed it many times over the years as we both have learned more about patterns and about giving the seminar. Add Comment

In the process we’ve both produced more than enough information for us each to have our own seminars, an urge that we’ve both strongly resisted because we have so much fun giving the seminar together. We’ve given the seminar in numerous places in the US, as well as in Prague (where we try to have a mini-conference every Spring together with a number of other seminars). We’ve occasionally given it as an on-site seminar, but this is expensive and difficult to schedule, because there are two of us. Add Comment

A great deal of appreciation goes to the people who have participated in these seminars over the years, and to Larry and Bill, as they have helped me work through these ideas and to refine them. I hope to be able to continue to form and develop these kinds of ideas through this book and seminar for many years to come. Add Comment

This book will not stop here, either. Originally, this material was part of a C++ book, then a Java book, then it broke off into its own Java-based book, and finally, after much pondering, I decided that the best way to initially create my design patterns treatise is to write it in Python first (since we know Python makes an ideal prototyping language!) and then translate the relevant parts of the book back into the Java version. I’ve had the experience before of casting an idea in a more powerful language, then translating it back into another language, and I’ve found that it’s much easier to gain insights and keep the idea clear. Add Comment

So Thinking in Python is, initially, a translation of Thinking in Patterns with Java, rather than an introduction to Python (there are already plenty of fine introductions to that superb language). I find this prospect to be much more exciting than the idea of struggling through another language tutorial (my apologies to those who were hoping for that). Add Comment