gang of four

1 definition found

gang of four - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  Gang of Four
   n.
  
     (also abbreviated GOF) [prob. a play on the `Gang Of Four' who
  briefly
     ran Communist China after the death of Mao] Describes either the
     authors or the book Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable
     Object-Oriented Software published in 1995 by Addison-Wesley (ISBN
     0-201-63361-2). The authors forming the Gang Of Four are Erich Gamma,
     Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides. They are also
     sometimes referred to as `Gamma et. al.' The authors state at
     http://www.hillside.net/patterns/DPBook/GOF.html "Why are we ...
     called this? Who knows. Somehow the name just stuck." The term is
  also
     used to describe any of the design patterns that are used in the
  book,
     referring to the patterns within it as `Gang Of Four Patterns.'