Years before this mediocre text spawned a cult there was a much better book by James Coplien that made many of the same points in a much more useful way. But it was about C++ which had not yet been destroyed by extensions like the destructive throw keyword and so didn’t spawn a cult, with managers taking a copy everywhere like high priests of some Cult of Cybele.

Now everyone talks authoritatively about this or that pattern for tiny scraps of code. It’s all supremely ridiculous.

I bought it new, I read it, I yawned, I sold it. The only pattern I ever refer to is the singleton because it takes less time to say.

I kept Coplien’s book.