Classical and Object-Oriented Software Engineering: With Uml and C++ [Hardcover]

Stephen R. Schach (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 672 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill College; 4th Edition edition (1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072901683
• ISBN-13: 978-0072901689
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,583,788 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Prescriptive book on traditional software engineering, December 7, 2002

By 

Pietari Laurila (Vantaa Finland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Object-Oriented and Classical Software Engineering (Hardcover)

Schach's Object-Oriented and Classical Software Engineering is a textbook in the traditional sense of the word. The book is divided into two parts. The first part, Introduction to Software Engineering, deals with software life-cycle models, teams, software engineering tools, and a few other general topics. The second part, The Phases of the Software Life Cycle, then takes a more detailed look at requirements, design, implementation, and so forth.

The book has undergone a number of revisions during its lifetime, and it shows. Schach discusses both structured and object-oriented methods, but the coverage isn't unified enough; the book feels like a quickly-made patch. I also wish that iterative development and agile methods had received more attention.

To make matters worse, Schach's writing style doesn't impress me much. Ineffective passive constructions abound and modifiers always are put before the verb, even if the sentence contains a modal verb or the verb is be. This actually gets annoying after a while! What's more, Scach's approach is very, very prescriptive, and at least I frequently found myself objecting vehemently to the advice presented.

It's sad that to my knowledge there are no really good general books on software engineering. Sommerville's book suffers from the exact same defects as Schach's. Can a software engineering book not be made accurate, thought-provoking, and fun to read?

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, March 12, 2003

By 

John R. Daily (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Object-Oriented and Classical Software Engineering (Hardcover)

I gave up on this book when I reached the extended example of object-oriented analysis, design and implementation. The analysis was ok; the design dropped a few elements without explanation, but was largely coherent.

The implementation was a nightmare. It looked like procedural C++, with practically no relationship to the analysis and design.

I think the book does a good job of conveying the time-tested key concepts behind software engineering. It should not be taken seriously as a discussion of object-oriented methodology.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This book seems overly general to be of use to anyone, December 2, 2000

By 

Todd Ebert (Long Beach California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classical and Object-Oriented Software Engineering With Uml and C++ (Hardcover)

The title of the book is very misleading, in that the book has very little uml and c++. Worse however is the lack of good problems and examples throughout the book. It seems like a watered-down version of Ghezzi's Software-Engineering book, the latter of which I would much more recommend. Some instructors may prefer Schach because it has *something* on uml and OOA&D, but it is probably better to supplement Ghezzi with a good book from this area (one I have yet locate).