Pitfalls of Object Oriented Development [Paperback]

Bruce F. Webster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1995

This guide looks at the development cycle of OOP, bringing its snares and shortcomings into focus to help achieve successful design and implementation. It clarifies the differences and similarities between OOP and classic software engineering and provides strategies for avoiding the pitfalls.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: M & T Books (February 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558513973
• ISBN-13: 978-1558513976
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,650,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still valuable after many years, August 1, 2001

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Pitfalls of Object Oriented Development (Paperback)

Like so many facets of science, Object-Oriented programming ( OOP) has been overhyped. With so many calling it the silver bullet of program development, it is reassuring that there are voices calling for the triumph of reason. As one who has made the transitions BASIC => FORTRAN => Pascal => C =>C++=> OOP, I am well aware that while OOP is an enormous aid in creating robust software, it does not cure all diseases. Like all tools, if not property used, the cure can be worse than the disease. Webster does an excellent job here in pointing out the locations of many of the land mines inherent in making the transition to OOP.
Leading off with a brief introduction to OOP that can be skipped without consequence, the heart of the book insists of 10 chapters.

1)Conceptual Pitfalls
2)Political Pitfalls
3)Management Pitfalls
4)Analysis and Design Pitfalls
5)Environment, Language and Tool Pitfalls
6)Implementation Pitfalls
7)Class and Object Pitfalls
8)Coding Pitfalls
9)Quality Assurance Pitfalls
10)Reuse Pitfalls

These chapters clearly cover the entire sequence of software development.
Each pitfall is split into several sections.

a)Title and explanation
b)Symptoms
c)Consequences
d)Detection
e)Extraction
f)Prevention

In all cases, the advice is practical, not theoretical. While it may be difficult to implement the advice, it is very hard to argue with it.
One of the most valuable books devoted to OOP, this book should be required reading for everyone in software development using OOP. If all groups planning to use OOP were to make their first task a group study of this book, many projects that would otherwise fail would instead be a success.

Published in Mathematics and Computer Education, reprinted with permission.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended, August 12, 1998

By 

Conrad H. Weisert (Chicago, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pitfalls of Object Oriented Development (Paperback)

Despite its title, not much in this 250-page book is actually about object-oriented technology. If you substituted "client-server" or just "large systems" for "object oriented" most of the content would still apply.

Despite its lack of specific O.O. guidance, the advice Webster gives us is sound. Project managers and others responsible for important software development projects, object-oriented or not, should read and reread it.

The style is friendly and readable. The book ends with a good bibliography of both project-management and object-oriented analysis topics.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, even more relevant in today's Java age, November 14, 1999

By 

Mark Onyschuk ([e-mail]) (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pitfalls of Object Oriented Development (Paperback)

We still recommend this book to our clients. Everyone talks about Object-oriented programming as though it were some sort of "silver bullet," but OO programming is still just a tool - it can be used or misused at the risk of your project's success.