Object Thinking (DV-Microsoft Professional) [Paperback]

David West (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735619654 | ISBN-13: 978-0735619654 | Publication Date: February 18, 2004

In OBJECT THINKING, esteemed object technologist David West contends that the mindset makes the programmer—not the tools and techniques. Delving into the history, philosophy, and even politics of object-oriented programming, West reveals how the best programmers rely on analysis and conceptualization—on thinking—rather than formal process and methods. Both provocative and pragmatic, this book gives form to what’s primarily been an oral tradition among the field’s revolutionary thinkers—and it illustrates specific object-behavior practices that you can adopt for true object design and superior results.

Gain an in-depth understanding of:

• Prerequisites and principles of object thinking.
• Object knowledge implicit in eXtreme Programming (XP) and Agile software development.
• Object conceptualization and modeling.
• Metaphors, vocabulary, and design for object development.

Learn viable techniques for:

• Decomposing complex domains in terms of objects.
• Identifying object relationships, interactions, and constraints.
• Relating object behavior to internal structure and implementation design.
• Incorporating object thinking into XP and Agile practice.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

<p>David West, Ph.D., is a leading educator and trainer in object-oriented software development with extensive experience consulting for Fortune 500 companies. He is a professor at New Mexico Highlands University School of Business, where he’s currently teaching an object-based curriculum and developing an innovative software development apprenticeship program based on object and agile principles. Dr. West also helped establish a software development track for computer science graduate students at the University of New Mexico. He founded and directed the Object Lab at the University of St. Thomas and cofounded the original Object Technology User Group, with more than 500 members.</p>

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (February 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735619654
• ISBN-13: 978-0735619654
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,179,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read!, March 23, 2004

By 

I. D. Smith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Object Thinking (DV-Microsoft Professional) (Paperback)

This is one of the first books in Microsoft Press' new "Microsoft Professional" series and first impressions are that it looks a bit dry. If you're as averse to "pretentiously long words" as I am - headings like "hermeneutics", "anthropomorphism" or "A syncretic Approach" leap off the page as you flick through the slim volume - then you're going to find the book a bit of a struggle("Looks like a great cure for insomnia" as a colleague commented after a quick flick through it) and my initial hopes were not high.

However persevere, because it's worth it! Although the language and presentation is almost the polar opposite of one of the "companion" titles in this series ("Extreme Programming Adventures in C#") this has a very high signal to noise ratio (which sadly the other much fatter volume doesn't!). So, don't be put off by the long names and endless footnote references to old ACM papers because what's presented here is a thoughtful and convincing book on the history of object-oriented development, the politics and design errors that have caused the "wrong" thinking to take place and a convincing argument as to why so many of us have got object orientation so wrong. The blurb promises "visionary insight" and if you can get through some of the "academic" language, against all expectations the book delivers on that promise. This ISN'T, as you might expect from a Microsoft Press book, a book of code examples and "silver bullet" handbook for the developer who wants to cut and paste code, for reasons that are well explained in the book. It IS a great guide to why current thinking is often wrong and what you, as a developer, need to do to develop your "object thinking" and deliver on the promises that have been made in its name.

Frankly I'm amazed and encouraged to see such a great "agnostic" (where Microsoft technologies are concerned) book published by Microsoft Press. This is one of the best titles I've read (and I've read a lot!) in their extensive catalogue. Perhaps the most important advice is that "Object thinking is hard", as the book's author professes, and while there aren't any "silver bullets" this book does guide you through a difficult path that will help you "think objects" and produce better solutions.

Highly recommended

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I really wanted to love this book, March 10, 2005

By 

wickerman "wickerman" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Object Thinking (DV-Microsoft Professional) (Paperback)

And I did - but I'm not sure how broad the appeal of a work such as this will be.

Readers looking for a 'pure' programming book will be disappointed; readers expecting a theoretical introduction to object-oriented programming will probably find themselves overwhelmed. The other groups of readers for whom I feel saddest will be those where English is their second language and readers predisposed to hostility towards Agile programming methodologies (http://www.agilealliance.com/home) - for them, this book will be an exercise in frustration.

The language in this book is written at a higher level of vocabulary than is typical - perhaps not atypical of a philosophy textbook (which is much closer to what this book is), but certainly outside the norm for books about programming. And it is because of this emphasis on philosophy that I find myself only able to give the book 3 stars. I loved it - but a lot of people will be put off by Dr. West's vision of titanic struggle between formalist culture and relativist culture, technocrats and managers against geeks and code poets.

On an emotional level, I get it. At an intellectual level, I get it. The process he's describing, the methodology he proposes, totally gel with the way I've long thought about my programs. Even when I was writing largely procedural code, I was holding in my head metaphors that made it a lot easier for me to visualize what I was trying to achieve. West believes that by training developers to accept fuzziness and chaos, to embrace uncertainty and relativism, to adopt an almost Zen-like approach to software-by-metaphor, better software will come about.

This book is almost a Gnostic text of sorts - to the believer or not-quite-believer actively seeking the message this book tries deliver, it will be a wonder. To a skeptic or traditionalist, it will seem like heresy. Ultimately, that's too bad - I think there's a lot of wonderful material in this book that'll be lost, and I do think my profession will be the less because of it.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OO is more about mindset, March 2, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Object Thinking (DV-Microsoft Professional) (Paperback)

This is a great book that goes into considerable amount of historical background on Object Oriented (OO) software development and lays a fertile background for assimilating OO concepts. David West does truly commendable job at explaining the related psychology and philosophy of OO development. He is quite radical in his approach at explaining what is wrong with traditional software development by explaining Agile methodologies (XP in particular). I thoroughly enjoyed the book and strongly recommend it to any .NET or J2EE developers who think they are designing OO software, but most in fact are not.