Design patterns books have been gaining popularity since languages like Java and C++ first became widely used. Since Microsoft released its first truly object-oriented language, .NET, software designers from an even broader range of business and programming spheres have been looking for ways to refine and write better code. Many have turned toward design patterns, iterative and AGILE design methodologies, and other more defined ways to improve performance, maintainability, portability, and scalability of code as well as design processes. This book fits into that need in that it can teach people who write software new skills and techniques for improving their existing and new coding efforts.