Erich Gamma

Erich Gamma
Born	(1961-03-13) March 13, 1961 Zürich
Citizenship	Swiss
Alma mater	University of Zurich
Known for	Design Patterns, JUnit, Eclipse
Scientific career
Fields	Software engineering

Erich Gamma (born 1961 in Zürich) is Swiss computer scientist and co-author of the influential software engineering textbook, Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. He co-wrote the JUnit software testing framework with Kent Beck and led the design of the Eclipse platform's Java Development Tools (JDT). He also worked on the IBM Rational Jazz project.

He joined Microsoft's Visual Studio team in 2011 and will lead a development lab in Zürich, Switzerland.

Interviews and presentations

In an interview in 2005, Erich Gamma explained:

• I think patterns as a whole can help people learn object-oriented thinking: how you can leverage polymorphism, design for composition, delegation, balance responsibilities, and provide pluggable behavior. Patterns go beyond applying objects to some graphical shape example, with a shape class hierarchy and some polymorphic draw method. You really learn about polymorphism when you've understood the patterns. So patterns are good for learning OO and design in general.

Written

• Erich Gamma on Flexibility and Reuse
• Design Principles from Design Patterns
• Patterns and Practice
• Eclipse's Culture of Shipping

Audio

• Erich Gamma on Patterns, JUnit, Eclipse and Jazz (at Software Engineering Radio)

Video

• Keynote by Erich Gamma from QCon London 2008
• Interview with Erich Gamma from QCon London 2008

See also

• object-oriented programming (OOP)
• polymorphism (computer science)
• composition
• delegation
• class hierarchy
• design patterns

External links

• Works by Erich Gamma at Open Library