A little Java, a few patterns
by Matthias Felleisen · first published 1997
78% recommend22% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Teaches object-oriented design through a question-driven, example-heavy walkthrough of Java and common patterns. It serves as a bridge for those coming from functional thinking into OOP, and it is delightful to read.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Matthias Felleisen and Daniel Friedman use a small subset of Java to introduce pattern-directed program design. With their usual clarity and flair, they gently guide readers through the fundamentals of object-oriented programming and pattern-based design. Readers new to programming, as well as those with some background, will enjoy their learning experience as they work their way through Felleisen and Friedman's lessons.
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A little Java, a few patterns, by Matthias Felleisen. Delightful book.
on “Quirky computing books” ↗I agree. It's the best book ever. Also see The Seasoned Schemer and The Reasoned Schemer. Similarly there is "A Little Java, A Few Patterns", that one teaches Java, and is written by the same authors. I was so excited about these books that I started writing "The Little C", it's gonna teach C the same way schemer books teach lisp! PS. I…
on “Deriving the Y Combinator” ↗…example, partial application, passing as arguments for abstraction) that you mention in Java, if a bit tedious (and often pointless, since the standard APIs generally weren't designed with that in mind.) _A Little Java, A Few Patterns_ came out in 1998; give it a read.
on “Yahoo Mail moving to React” ↗…It's more pragmatic and immediately useful than The Little/Seasoned Schemer, but this doesn't make it any less about FP. "Spessore" is about OOP, but described from unusual angle: it reminds me of "The Little Java, a Few Patterns" in this regard. It's a great description of how and why OOP works, from the most basic concepts up. Reg's articles on FP in JS and Ruby let me fill the gaps in my knowledge I had because of having no…
on “Functional Programming in JavaScript: A Collection of Hands-on Exercises” ↗For me best described in, and also as a topic mentioned in the paper about the visitor pattern connection, "A Little Java, A Few Patterns". This book writes really impractical Java, but in such a Scheme way, that you really can understand the deep connections between functional and object-oriented programming.
on “Deriving Dependently-Typed OOP from First Principles” ↗I don't think there's a centralized community for the Little Series. I think this is unfortunate. With a community, some great titles like The Little MLer (typed FP) and A Little Java, a Few Patterns (OOP) would be much better known. I found those two outstanding. I think A Little Java has been reprinted. But last time I checked, The Little MLer was bloody expensive. Standard ML, OCaml and F# need…
on “The Little Typer (2018)” ↗The book A Little Java, A Few Patterns by the same author and his colleague might answer your question.
on “Developing Developers (2015)” ↗there's actually a really good book that bridged it well for me when I was doing my bachelors, A Little Java, A Few Patterns. this is from the famous lisp books for groking FP.
on “Why senior developers fail to communicate their expertise” ↗I'm actually not surprised to see the counterfeit warning in the site. Last week I've ordered a book from Amazon Italy (A Little Java, A Few Patterns) only to receive what I do consider a very low quality copy of the book and somehow different edition despite having both the original and this "copy" same ISBNs: https://www.amazon.it/Little-Java-Few-Patterns/dp/0262561158…
on “The Art of Electronics (2015)” ↗Good examples of closures / first order functions in java is through a visitor; example below is like the ones in A Little Java, A Few Patterns new Top(new Anchovy(), new Top(new Tuna(), new Top(new Lettuce(), new Bot()))) .accept( new RemVisitor(new Anhovy() ); This removes those smelly Anchovies from your tuna sandwich -- and can be implemented…
on “Closures – A Simple Explanation (Using Ruby)” ↗