Object-Oriented Database Design Clearly Explained (Clearly Explained) [Paperback]

Jan L. Harrington (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: NY (1980)
• ASIN: B000MUDDNE
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A useful review quotation, October 30, 2002

By 

Devin B. Hedge "devinhedge" (Sterling, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Object-Oriented Database Design Clearly Explained (Paperback)

Every now and then I find a review somewhere else in cyberspace that I wish was posted on Amazon.com. Here is one from the ACCU.org website.
"Reviewed by Silvia de Beer in Overload OL37 (May 2000)
This book has not taught me anything new. I can not think who the intended audience would be. In the preface the author claims you need to be thoroughly familiar with the relational database model and that you do not need a background in the OO paradigm.

Part one, a hundred pages of theory, explains the OO data model. UML is shortly mentioned, but throughout the rest of the book ER models are used. The quality of some of the models is doubtful, as inheritance seems overvalued. Normal associations, like delegation or other forms, are not mentioned as an alternative. I do not know why this book has OO Database design in the title, because hardly any specifics about this topic can be found in the book.

The equivalent of SQL for OO databases is ODL and OQL, but it is stated 'A discussion of OQL is beyond the scope of this book'. So what is in the scope of the book?

Part two, two hundred pages, consists of three case studies. It contains many pages on useless company descriptions. The OO database design is based on the relational model, copied from the book Relational Database Design by the same author. Some tables are slightly objectified, but this is all that is done. There is no design, just repetitive code listings, of which the book contains no less than hundred pages.

I cannot recommend this book, you better read a good OO introduction and find another source for OO databases."

I couldn't have said it better. My reccomendation is some other guide. You might want to look at "Introduction to Object-Oriented Databases" by Won Kim or better yet, just go learn to do Object Oriented Analysis and Design using UML from the "UML Distilled" book, then (and only then) create am Object Persistance Model from the UML design.

Devin.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars valuable insights not easily found elsewhere, January 30, 2000

By 

Bruce Neubauer (Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Object-Oriented Database Design Clearly Explained (Paperback)

I really like the way this book steps through the progression from relational databases to hybrid databases to fully object-oriented databases. This is not a book on designing object-oriented applications (of which there are many good titles). It is about designing databases. The content is excellent, and is, indeed, "clearly explained." In my opinion, it is most appropriate for people with some experience with entity-relationship diagrams, and some programming background. The references cited are the "masters." This book does not waste the reader's time with silly humor or unnecessary material.

I hope there will be a second edition. If there is, the glossary might be somewhat expanded. I would like additional unified modeling language (UML) diagrams. I would like an explicit explanation of "impedience mismatch" between object-oriented applications and relational databases, although this may be slightly out of scope.

This is a unique and valuable book. Being a teacher, I see its value in the classroom. It is a practical book which surely is also of immediate value to progressive database administrators and programmers who are helping bring object technology into their organizations. It is an excellent textbook for courses on object-oriented database design. I plan to use it as a second textbook for a general course on databases. I think it would also be ideal as a second textbook for courses in object-oriented systems design which include database design.

Bruce Neubauer -- Pittsburg State University

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Another fast book? Object databases for OO beginners -Why?, October 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Object-Oriented Database Design Clearly Explained (Paperback)

If you don't already know and understand the basic object terminology explained in this book, you probably don't need to start with a book on object databases. I would also read the reviews of this author's other books. They are mostly very bad. This author seems to write more book than anyone could write and do a good job - even if they wrote fulltime - much less if they taught college as this author claims to. This book is probably not worth the money or your time.