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Object-Oriented Rapid Prototyping by J Connell & Linda Shafer Recommended

ISBN: 0 13 629643 2       Publisher: Prentice Hall       Pages: 204pages       Price: £28-95

Categories:   object oriented

Reviewed by Malcolm Pell in C Vu 7-4 (May 1995)

The first part of the book provides a tutorial to the major concepts behind Rapid Prototyping and Object Oriented methods.

The next three chapters explain how to build a graphic model of the application, then iteratively build upon this model and convert the prototype into a fully featured application which meets the user requirements.

The remainder of the book covers using the techniques presented previously in a real development type project. Techniques are presented to help you manage risks, produce good estimates and measure productivity. Documentation standards are also covered.

The authors do not favour any one OO methodology, but mention Coad and Jacobson, Rumbaugh, Booch and others. Programmers may be disappointed that there is no source code at all in the book.

Even though the concepts may be more suited to those of us developing software in a professional environment, the ideas can be applied to the hobby or small office environment. The authors show that it is possible to use software such as Apple's Hypercard and Mac-Draw to form the basis of an OO Rapid Prototyping system. Similar software for a PC could also be used.

Overall, I was fascinated by the book. I intend to persuade my colleagues of its value, so that we can use these concepts at work in our future development projects.