Originally refers to the authors of book "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software" whom are ErichGamma, RichardHelm, RalphJohnson, and JohnVlissides (aka the Gang-of-Four). Although the term is also used interchangeably as a reference to the collection of design patterns presented in the book.
The authors of the DesignPatternsBook came to be known as the "Gang of Four." The name of the book ("Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software") is too long for e-mail, so "book by the gang of four" became a shorthand name for it. After all, it isn't the ONLY book on patterns. That got shortened to "GOF book", which is pretty cryptic the first time you hear it.
- ErichGamma
- RichardHelm
- RalphJohnson
- JohnVlissides
Source: Design Patterns Book
