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Principles of OO Software Development by Anton Eliens Recommended

ISBN: 0-201-62444-3       Publisher: Addison-Wesley       Pages: 512pp       Price: £24-95

Categories:   object oriented

Reviewed by Peter Wippell in C Vu 9-1 (Nov 1996)

Part 1: Design
Introduces Objects, describes C++ and some of its pitfalls, gives a taste of CRC and Z, MVC framework, the idea of design by contract, various design guidelines and ideas on testing. Each subject is dealt with quickly and in varying depth using 'landmark' papers rather than textbooks.

Part 2: Languages and Systems
Compares Smalltalk, Eiffel and C++, then describes concurrent languages and extensions to C++ and ends with a useful exposition of 'composition mechanisms' (nowadays we call them 'patterns').

Part 3: Foundations
Describes formal approaches to abstract data types, polymorphism and sub typing and the behaviour of groups of objects. You really have to have more than an elementary knowledge of computer science mathematics to follow this part.

Part 4: Application Frameworks
Surveys the libraries and tools which were available in 1994 and discusses Hyper media Frameworks and 'Multiparadigm Programming'.

There are Appendices on Smalltalk, Eiffel, C++, PDL (an OOP version of Prolog, pioneered by the author), the Hush Widget Library and Internet Addresses. Answers are given to the exercises which are found at the end of each chapter.

The author's enthusiasm for programming and for formal methods really comes across. I believe that anyone who shares these interests would enjoy his book very much indeed. Indeed the range of information is so wide that most people would learn something new from it and there are sections of it which I expect to re-read many times. However, don't buy this book if you hate maths!