Object-Oriented Software Construction (Book/CD-ROM) (2nd Edition) (Prentice-Hall International Series in Computer Science)

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.

Customer Review: Should be titled: "Object Oriented Programming in Eiffel"

After reading the first couple of hundred pages, I felt something was not right. The notation the author used to explain his OO theories seemed like I was actually being forced to learn a computer language syntax. Before buying, I remember reading through some of the Amazon reviews that mentioned this book was an advertisement for Bertrand Meyer's Eiffel language. So I got online to find some Eiffel syntax and programming examples. Sure enough, Meyer's had me secretly learning his OO language, Eiffel!



The first big clue comes in Chapter 36. Meyer's writes, "the language is the notation that we have devised in part C and applied throughout the book." The Epilogue is the epiphany moment. It's entitled, "Epilogue, In Full Frankness Exposing the Language." In the last paragraph he thanks the reader for "patiently" following along, unveiling that the "anonymous language" used throughout the book is actually Eiffel! He concludes, "welcome to the world of Eiffel." BTW, this is on page 1,163!



I give it 2 stars because 4 of the 36 chapters (~120 pages) are actually worth reading and have very little cruft. These chapters are included in Part B, "The Road To Object Orientation." They cover some very key OO topics, such as modularity, reusability, decomposition, genericity, and abstract data types (ADT). I especially liked the contrast of functional and object-based decomposition in chapter 5. Meyer's argument really gives you a sense of the power of OO languages in application development environments compared to functional or structured languages, such as C or Ada.



However, I bought the book believing it was a language independent study of OO methods. I made this assumption from the title, table of contents, and the book's back cover description. I feel very cheated and would not recommend this book to anybody who is looking for an in-depth read of OO analysis, design or programming. It wastes time introducing the "anonymous" Eiffel syntax, evolution, and implementation when the reader doesn't quite understand the big secret yet.

Customer Review: The better book you can get about OO

There's no way someone can get to know about objects without reading meyer's book. It's huge but worth
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