Corba Design Patterns (ISBN 0471158828) Book Reviews 1-11 Sorted By Most Recent, at VeryWellSaid.com

Waste of your time & money...

One of the most useless technical books one can lay hands on...[Guess who bought 3 copies of this book and gave it to the engineering team - the CTO of a now defunct dot-com that I used to work for!!]

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-09-13 14:27:59 EST)

09-07-00

3\3

Not too technical

Yes, having read the GOF book, this one does not stand up to it's level of detail and many of the patterns are not that great. However, I am surprised by how harsh some of the reviews are. The review of system scale and the relation to level of pattern usage was worthwhile and some patterns, while people will say "duh, how obvious", are decent intros for those who do not have in depth knowledge. I would recommend this book to newbies in OO and CORBA and not to a seasoned OO developer. That's the differentiation that needs to be made. Read Enterprise CORBA by Slama et al if you're looking for more detail on CORBA in general. If you want a high level review of patterns and how they apply to CORBA level OO, this book is fine.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-09 16:43:19 EST)

09-06-00

3\3

Not too technical

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 09:25:37 EST)

05-18-00

4\4

Lacking in substance

This book contains titles and summaries for several useful CORBA design patterns. However, on a closer read you will find that it does not contain nearly the depth and breadth of the Gang of Four Design Patterns book. I would love to see someone actually provide detail for the Participants, Consequences, and Implementation sections that were so well documented in the GOF book, but conspicuously absent in this one. What an obvious rush-to-market to jump on the Design Pattern frenzy.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 09:25:37 EST)

10-27-99

3\4

Save your money

I found this book to be worthless. I would almost never use any of the patterns he describes in a real world CORBA implementation. The only exception to this would be the dynamic attribute pattern, but I would only use that now that Objects-by-Value are available.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 09:25:37 EST)

08-06-99

10\10

self-aggrandizing and a waste

Everyone else on this page has done a great job of pointing out the shortcomings of this tome. But another thing that ought to be mentioned is the astonishingly self-aggrandizing writing style. Mowbray seems to denigrate the Gang of Four (whose shoes he is not fit to shine) by saying that their book addresses only a micro-architectural level, while his is the "first" to deal with higher levels. He says this over and over, in a not-so-subtle way of favorably comparing himself to them. Well, big whoop! His "higher level" patterns are obscure and not particularly useful. They are based more on the technical specificities of CORBA itself - which change every time the CORBA standard does. And then he even applies patterns to how organizations should be run!? This is just a bit much. Design patterns are no substitute for management theory. Anyway, my favorite part is the bibliography, in which every single book is described as "essential" or "unmissable" or something like that - especially the other books by Mowbray. I forget the exact word he used, as I threw out this piece of trash months ago.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 09:25:37 EST)

06-20-99

3\6

Finally - the real utility of Patterns...

I have to admit that I was at first set back by the very negative reviews here on Amazon before I started reading this book. But now I find that I am looking back to this book frequently and finding many excellent in-sights.

I think Mowbray & Malveau may have touched a sore spot in the patterns-clique, but they are clearly smart fellows when it comes to CORBA. This book begins to demonstrate the true potential of patterns as a way to pass on codified wisdom - extending patterns to those who are outside of the "Patterns Illuminatti" or just too busy to participate in a PLoP.

If you're doing CORBA work, just read it, you'll use it.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 09:25:37 EST)

03-20-99

3\3

This book is a total disappointment.

I was hoping to find a good book with some solid CORBA design patterns. Instead I found a book with no real world applicability which is painfully dry. Examples in C, come on. Save your money this ones a major bust.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 09:25:37 EST)

01-23-99

3\4

A very useful book - glad I read it.

In contrast to the other reviewers, I found the first 78+ pages -extremely- helpful. There are some essential items which really put the material into context. And, you won't get this full view of things from GoF: A taxonomy of design patterns, an explanation of horizontal versus vertical design, an explanation of where this kind of design fits into the whole organization, etc.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 09:25:37 EST)

10-07-98

(NA)

riding the gravy train

This book is not quite worthless, but close. The design patterns presented in this book aren't really design patterns in the sense that the reader is expecting, but tips and tricks. Most of them are really elementary. The IDL and source code contain many errors. The accompanying CD-ROM contains nothing that is not freely and easily available. It's an obvious ploy to jack up the price of the book.

Mowbray is just riding the gravy train, hoping to cash in by using buzz words like "CORBA" and "Design Patterns" -- but he doesn't deserve to earn a nickel. I'd sell you my copy for half what Amazon has it for.

Don't waste your money.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 09:25:37 EST)

09-15-98

(NA)

Disappointment