cline@cheetah.ece.clarkson.edu (Marshall Cline) (06/02/90)
Benjamin/Cummings just sent me a fresh copy of Grady Booch's new book: ``Object Oriented Design''. I had heard good things about it 4th hand, and I must say that I haven't been let down. I like the numerous good examples, the Software Engineering approach, and the emphasis on design. I've skimmed it, and will give a more complete report in a few weeks. But my first impressions were very positive. It's about time we had a good OOD book! Author: Grady Booch Title: Object Oriented Design with Applications Publisher: Benjamin/Cummings ISBN: 0-8053-0091-0 Copyright: 1991 A couple of initial thoughts: the book is not based on any one OOPL, but rather gives roughly equal time to C++, Smalltalk, CLOS, Object Pascal, and Ada. He doesn't seem to `put down' any one of these, but rather discusses their relative strengths and weaknesses in a sensible manner. The book is distinctly *not* a book from which you could learn all the nuiances of any of these languages; rather it centers on the concepts of how you do *design* in the OO paradigm. Booch seems very concerned with unconstrained software complexity. OOP isn't just a fun theoretical ideal to him, but it's something which may alleviate the software crisis we are presently battling. He's wants `industrial strength software'. Healthy dose of reality. The Section on Applications looks good. It's quite a healthy chunk of the book (250 pgs out of around 500 total). There's a rather large example in each of the major programming languages. The key (as I understand Booch's goals) is not `this language or that', but rather how can these problems be *designed* using OO technology. His method is: design a little, implement a little, think it through and redesign, etc. Most of us are embarassed to admit that we do it that way too rather than getting it right the first time. Marshall Cline -- ============================================================================== Marshall Cline / Asst.Prof / ECE Dept / Clarkson Univ / Potsdam, NY 13676 cline@sun.soe.clarkson.edu / Bitnet:BH0W@CLUTX / uunet!clutx.clarkson.edu!bh0w Voice: 315-268-3868 / FAX: 315-268-7600 Career search in progress; ECE faculty; research oriented; will send vita. ==============================================================================