View Review Details


Book:   ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns
Subject:   Patterns are not owned by a language
Date:   2008-04-19 13:52:01
From:   williebegoode
Response to: ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns: Thinking in Patterns

Rating:  StarStarStarStarStar

This is a response to the idea that somehow the book "borrowed" design patterns from C++ and Java. Actually, C++, Java, C# and ActionScript 3.0 "borrowed" the patterns from SmallTalk, the programming language that was used in the original design pattern book by Gamma and his associates. All of the examples in this book are for Flash/ActionScript 3.0 programmers and the authors looked at design patterns in lots of different programming languages to help them understand the key relationships between classes and interfaces that make up the bulk of what design patterns are all about. So, the most accurate language of origin would be SmallTalk, but even that isn't quite right. By examining how different languages made the connections between classes, the authors were better able to make examples that used ActionScript 3.0 in ways unique to the language and the programming environment of Flash.


In the chapter on Model View Controller, one of the parts that make up the MVC uses built-in design patterns in ActionScript 3.0 itself. However, those built-in patterns were originally derived from the language in the original Design Pattern book by the Gang of Four.


Browse within this book