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Object-Oriented System Development by D de Champeaux Recommended

ISBN: 0-201-56355-X       Publisher: Addison-Wesley       Pages: 530pp       Price: £37-95

Categories:   object oriented

Reviewed by Philip Kerrigan in C Vu 6-4 (May 1994)

There are copious references to a bibliography of 237 items, many of which are of recent publication (up to 1992). The book covers problems of large system development, but the authors believe these concepts are relevant even for developing very small tasks.

This book neither teaches an existing method nor advocates a new one. The authors reluctantly introduce their own simplified Analysis Notation and Design Language (combining many sources) to demonstrate the basic notions. I would describe the book as fundamental in that it imparts the base knowledge to understand what is meant by objects and what analysis and design mean, both intrinsically and in object oriented terms. It is then up to the reader to decide what method to use in practice. By the end of the book the reader should have the knowledge to be able to look at any method and understand what each it offers.

The book is well laid out with no gratuitous use of white space, a good bibliography and a reasonable 11 pages of index. Each chapter has a summary of what was covered, suggested further reading and stimulating exercises. There are no answers to the questions, which is a pity as they would perform useful extra guidelines, but in the majority of cases they are essay type questions to provoke the reader into further study and there is no 'answer'. What would you do for the following from the chapter on ensembles? 'Discuss whether the following pairs of notions can be in the ensemble-constituent relation - Your feet and a smell'.

This is not a programming book so code is irrelevant and it is written in English with no Californian or Greek. The only major gripe is that there is no glossary of all the new terms introduced in the book and I sincerely hope this will be remedied in a further edition.

The book is divided into separate parts covering Analysis and Design. The analysis section spends some time covering what is meant by objects, how to identify them, how to characterise their behaviour, relationships, interaction etc. As the book progresses analysis of an Automatic Teller Machine system is continually refined to incorporate more concepts. The design part takes the concepts developed in analysis, such as attributes, interactions, transitions and shows their design. Dispatching, co-ordination and performance optimisation are also covered. A final chapter briefly covers moving to an implementation.

No disc, code is irrelevant, object-oriented development will be assimilated. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to improve their understanding of the development process and make it more of an engineering process and less a black art, even if the book is quite expensive. At least ask your company or local library to buy a copy.