Product Description

For any software engineer, developer or programmer interested in O-O software and programming.

This long-awaited revision retains the clarity, practicality and innovations that helped the first edition sell over 75,000 copies since 1988. Now over 1200 pages with a CD ROM full of object tools, this edition is fully revised and considerably expanded, making it THE definitive reference on the most promising software development in 30 years.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70816 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1296 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The developer of the acclaimed Eiffel programming language comes through with one of the clearest and most informative books about computers ever committed to paper. Object-Oriented Software Construction is the gospel of object-oriented technology and it deserves to be spread everywhere. Meyer opens with coverage of the need for an object-oriented approach to software development, citing improved quality and development speed as key advantages of the approach. He then explains all the key criteria that define an object-oriented approach to a problem. Meyer pays attention to techniques, such as classes, objects, memory management, and more, returning to each technique and polishing his readers' knowledge of it as he explains how to employ it "well". In a section on advanced topics, Meyer explores interesting and relevant topics, such as persistent objects stored in a database. He also offers a sort of "Do and Don't" section in which he enumerates common mistakes and ways to avoid them. Management information isn't the main point of Object-Oriented Software Construction, but you'll find some in its pages. Meyer concludes his tour de force with comparisons of all the key object-oriented languages, including Java. He also covers the potential of simulating object technology in non-object-oriented languages, such as Pascal and Fortran. The companion CD-ROM includes the full text of this book in hypertext form, as well as some tools for designing object-oriented systems. If you program computers, you need to read this book. --Jake Bond

From the Back Cover

62915-4

The definitive reference on the most important new technology in software!

“While the original version of OOSC is a classic, OOSC 2/E is destined to overshadow it and all other general introductions . . . literally an epic work.” —James C. McKim, Jr., Hartford Graduate Center

“Compelling. Extremely well-written and literate . . . I recaptured that same sense of intellectual excitement I felt reading the first edition for the first time.” —Paul Dubois, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Editor, Scientific Programming Dept., Computers in Physics

“The definitive tome on Object-Orientation . . . the finest piece of writing and thinking about this vast subject . . . Bertrand has a lot to say of great importance and says it well in this significantly revised book.” —Richard Wiener, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Editor, Journal for Object-Oriented Programming

A whole generation was introduced to object technology through the first edition of Bertrand Meyer's OOSC. This long-awaited new edition retains the qualities of clarity, practicality and scholarship that made the first an instant best-seller. It has been thoroughly revised and considerably expanded. No other book on the market provides such a breadth and depth of coverage on the most important technology in software development.

SOME OF THE NEW TOPICS COVERED IN DEPTH BY THIS SECOND EDITION:

• Concurrency, distribution, client-server and the Internet.
• Object-oriented databases, persistence, schema evolution.
• Design by contract: how to build software that works the first time around.
• A study of fundamental design patterns.
• How to find the classes and many others topics of object-oriented methodology.
• How to use inheritance well and detect misuses.
• Abstract data types: the theory behind object technology.
• Typing: role, issues and solutions.
• More than 400 references to books, articles, Web pages, newsgroups; glossary of object technology.
• And many new developments on the topics of the first edition: reusability, modularity, software quality, O-O languages, inheritance techniques, genericity, memory management, etc.

About the Author
BERTRAND MEYER is one of the pioneers of modern software engineering, whose experience spans both industry and academia. He has led the development of successful O-O products and libraries totaling thousands of classes. His Prentice Hall books include Object Success (an introduction to object technology for managers), Introduction to the Theory of Programming Languages, Eiffel: The Language, Object-Oriented Applications, and Reusable Software. He is a frequent keynote speaker at international conferences and consultant for Fortune 500 companies, editor of the Object-Oriented Series, associate member of the applications section of the French Academy of Sciences, chairman of the TOOLS conference series, and editor of the Object Technology department of IEEE Computer.

Customer Reviews

The New Testament of software development.
Get this book and get one up on those alleged 'OO Designers' who've never even heard of it! Bertrand Meyer is sometimes criticised for his strong opinions, but here they are all backed up with solid reasoning, lucid arguments and more than enough brevity to stop the whole lot being dull as dishwater.

You can have all the ISO's, CMM's, TickIts and whatever else is todays quality-control-red-tape flavour of the month, but none of these address the fundamental quality of the software design. Hence the quality of the software will always struggle. This book is a brilliant step in the right direction to developing good quality, manageable software.

Meyer describes, very clearly, practices and techniques that will get your basic class design up to scratch, as well as pointing out common pitfalls, again with logical, convincing arguments. There's none of this "Never do this unless you have to" approach that too many other software gurus get away with.

My only problem with the book is that it does lean towards Eiffel language. But after a brief look at Eiffel I think it's an excellent language that has been out-hyped by the Java and C++ despite being superior.

I wouldn't say it's a cover-to-cover read, it is a huge book, but I find that I can dip in virtually anywhere and find something of value. I just wish that this book was on as many desks as the "Teach yourself Product XYZ in 21 days books". You can read as many of those as you like, and you can subscribe to all the quality standards, but they contain nothing that will improve your software design. That's where this book comes in.

The best book on OOAD
After 5 years of OO develeopment, I thought I had a good understanding of OO (inheritance in particular) until I read this book. IMHO, this is the by far the most thorough book on OOAD because of Meyer's full treatment of the subject, including theoretical background and proofs.

As for Design by Contract, I have been using it since 1998 in my VB and C++ design/code and I have seen a radical improvement in my designs and code quality.

This book ought to be mandatory reading material for all OOAD practitioner and students.

This is quite simply, THE BOOK.
This book is quite simply the best book on programming that I have ever read. It is written with an intellectual rigor which is unfortunately rarely seen in this area. Every point is well argued and backed up with convincing evidence. If you are going to buy one book on software development in the whole of your life, never mind this year, it should be this one.