<AaronSprague/>

I received a great book from my girl friend this Christmas called Head First Design Patterns. I have been reading this book and it is really getting me excited (about coding patterns in case you needed clarification). To better understand these patterns I am going to try and code examples of each one and post my experience as well as the code on my blog. I will list the patterns so I can keep track of them as well as giving my one or two readers a heads up on what to expect.

All of these patterns and definitions are described in Head First Design Patterns by Eric Freeman & Elisabeth Freeman with Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates from O'Reilly

Design patterns

• The Strategy Pattern (p24) - Defines a family of algorithms, encapsulates each one, and makes them interchangeable. Strategy lets the algorithm vary independently from clients that use it.
• The Observer Pattern (p51) - Defines a one-to-many dependency between objects so that when one object changes state, all its dependents are notified and updated automatically.
• The Decorator Pattern (p91) - Attaches additional responsibilities to an object dynamically. Decorators provide a flexible alternative to subclassing for extending functionality.
• The factory Method Pattern (p134) - Defines an interface for creating an object, but lets subclasses decide which class to instantiate. Factory Method lets a class defer instantiation to subclasses.
• The Abstract Factory Pattern(p156) - Provides an interface for creating families of related of dependent objects without specifying their concrete classes.
• The Singleton Pattern (p177) - Ensures a class has only one instance, and provides a global point of access to it.
• The Command Pattern (p206) - Encapsulates a request as an object, thereby letting you parameterize other objects with different requests, queue or log requests, and support undoable operations.
• The Adapter Pattern (p243) - Converts the interface of a class into another interface the clients expect. Adapter lets classes work together that couldn't otherwise because of incompatible interfaces.
• The Template Method Pattern(p289) - Defines the skeleton of an algorithm in a method, deferring some steps to subclasses. Template Methods lets subclasses redefined certain steps of an algorithm without changing the algorithm's structure.
• The Interator Pattern (p336) - Provides a way to access the elements of an aggregate object sequentially without exposing the underlying representation.
• The Composite Pattern(p356) - Allows you to compose objects into tree structures to represent part-whole hierarchies. Composite lets clients treat individual objects and compositions of objects uniformly.
• The State Pattern(p410) - Allows an object to alter its behavior when its internal state changes. The object will appear to change its class.
• The proxy pattern(p460) -  Provides a surrogate or placeholder for another object to control access to it.