The focus of this book is to present object-oriented programming using .NET patterns. Patterns are currently being largely taught based on the assumption that the reader understands object oriented programming techniques. This has resulted in another gap as the techniques taught often clash with the techniques used by the reader. The pattern concept is also abstract and often fails to make the jump from theory to practical. The purpose of this book is to fix the object-oriented and pattern programming dilemma by "mixing" the two—that is, teaching object-oriented concepts using patterns. If a moment is taken to think about the problem, this is a very logical approach as it promotes a solutions-based approach. The solutions are "how to create an object," "how to define where one wants to go," "how might one define the implementation", and so on. This book is unique in that it is modeled after the author’s successful speaking material that applies patterns in a very pragmatic and practical manner. The materials will be organized using tasks, presented using patterns, and illustrated using development problems and solutions. This book will reference open source projects that illustrate some of the development problems and solutions. The focus is to use practical solutions that developers encounter everyday, such as database manipulations, GUI development, or middle tier component development. There will be no focus on specific technologies; for example, to illustrate database manipulations, Microsoft SQL Server could be used, but the book will focus on using a generic database and the SQL programming language.