Definitely one for your bookshelf.
Over the last five years SIGS have published articles on Patterns in several of their periodicals (C++ Report, JOOP etc.). Linda Rising has collected together many of these articles as well as some material from other places such as Software Engineering Notes (can anyone provide me any more information about this periodical?) The book is divided into three sections:
Five articles providing an overview (49 pages) 12 articles grouped as 'Examples and Experience (138 pages) that range from a single page contribution on skiing (yes it is relevant) to a fourteen page article 'Pattern writing' from Linda Rising herself.
The bulk of the book (over 300 pages) of articles from such authorities as James Coplien, Andrew Koenig etc.
Most articles finish with useful bibliographies and the book concludes with two appendices. The first of these is an annotated bibliography (well really a collection of reviews) of many of the key texts from the Pattern movement. The second appendix lists a number of interesting WWW sites (links are fine but articles that use links to include other material are a menace for those of us who use dial-up connections. Does anyone know of a product that would allow me to download a primary article and all referenced material to a specified link depth?) I think this is one of the more useful books about Patterns that I have come across. Its utility spans a wide range from those curious about the ideas (but perhaps daunted by the GoF's Design Patterns ) to those who are already regular users of Pattern concepts. Definitely one for your bookshelf.
