Java Design: Building Better Apps and Applets (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Mark Mayfield (Author), Jonathan Kern (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In this completely updated book, internationally-respected object oriented development experts Peter Coad and Mark Mayfield bring discipline to Java development, showing how to design Java client/server apps for maximum efficiency and reliability. They review object models, scenario views, multithreading, concurrency, exceptions, and more, presenting leading-edge design techniques that are proven to work. This new edition features UML 1.1 notation throughout; six powerful new strategies for designing with interfaces; important new coverage of swing classes, design models for Enterprise Beans, inner classes, packages, Infobus architecture and much more. The CD-ROM contains the breakthrough TOGETHER/J Whiteboard Edition, a completely free, Java-based, full UML, platform-independent visual modeler for enterprise-wide software development. For any professional software developer interested in client/server programming with Java.

From the Publisher

Understand Java as a serious client/server development language. In this book, internationally-respected object oriented development experts Peter Coad and Mark Mayfield show programmers the best way to design Java client/server applications and applets that are as efficient and reliable as possible. The book covers object models and scenario views as they apply to Java programming. It introduces threads and concurrency, and shows how to design software that makes the most effective, reliable use of multithreading. Developers will learn better ways to think about Java exceptions -- and when and how to use them. The book also covers Java's implementation of notification. Java: Designing Better Apps and Applets will be invaluable to any professional software developer interested in client/server programming with Java. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 309 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 2nd edition (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0139111816
• ISBN-13: 978-0139111815
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #634,098 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Design Book, January 18, 2000

By	J. Martens (Baltimore Metro Area, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is about design, and is targeted towards readers who have some familiarity with design patterns but need more experience and want to see how to apply these tools using Java.

Regarding the negative reviews, I think the problem is that people with insufficient background are missing the point of the book. The publisher is partly to blame by placing buzzwords like enterprise beans and swing packages on the cover, whereas these are only tangentially touched upon in the text.

The readers who said they're decent Java hackers (that already suggests a person that won't understand design concepts), and people who thought the books spent too much time explaining inheritance and interfaces, just missed the point. The book wasn't explaining these concepts, but rather how to design using these concepts. The authors are guilty of assuming some OOD background from their readers. This book is not for beginners, though some beginners will get a lot out of it.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss the point!, June 2, 2001

By	jackofsometrades "jackofsometrades" (Finland, EU) - See all my reviews

Ok, there seems to be some serious inconsistensies between one reviewer and the next. Some say this book is one-star trash, others say it's a five star gem. Weird, eh?

I needed some serious design guidance at my first real work (not in school-class anymore with a teacher nearby). At first I decided not to buy this book because of some of the bad reviews. I bought couple of other books and got nowhere. Now I read this book too and wham was I surprised! This book is excellent.

I find it very obvious now that the persons who gave this book bad reviews were either not good/experienced programmers at all, thus they didn't notice the actual points the authors were trying to convey at times, or the readers just plain read this book too fast with too little thought. It is easy to read this book without actually thinking, because the book does not look very dry or academic. It lacks the "aura of seriousness" just like the author's other book on Color UML, which some people mistakenly dismiss as somewhat of a childrens' book.

This book is NOT about inheritance. It is NOT about interfaces. It is NOT about notification. Nor about threads. Many people thought it was and, of course they already knew those aspects from any basic Java book. This book is about DESIGNING a program using those features. Every chapter cuts the aspects you have to consider about the topic, into a handful of clear guidelines. Every chapter summarizes listing those guidelines at the end of the chapter. If you make the mistake of just reading through, "Aha, yeah, of course... nice, seems smart..." you don't really learn to use them. When you have read this book, go back to design your software. Now, at every step go through all the chapter summaries an APPLY all the guidelines to every design step you make. Then you'll slowly begin to learn. It will feel as if a lightbulb was lit inside your head. "Oh, THIS is how it's done!"

After some experience, you only need this book occasionally, after making the guideline design steps into routine habits. Your code will reflect this by being clear and very professional quality.

Also, someone complained that only some of the UML notation was used. This is again NOT a book on UML. It is a book on the design process/steps that Coad & Co feel are important. Nobody uses every aspect of UML. It is just too huge a notation language. You need to learn a subset that fits YOUR purposes. Some prefer the "Use Case Driven" approach, some "Feature Driven", and so on.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Java Design - the focus is on DESIGN, November 14, 2001

By	Mark W Mitchell (Roswell, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read all of the reviews on this book, and found it disturbing how the ratings for this book could go high and low, with few in between.

I read the book, and found it helped me personally in my efforts with developing in Java. The KISS (Keep it simple stupid) method will survive the test of time.

I kept thinking about the review disparities as I read the book. I think that the reviewers who gave low marks were looking for a different kind of book, that might be more related to Java coding tricks - not sure, as I cannot ask them. However this book focuses on program design, and the reviews on the high side focused on this - which is exactly what I was looking for.

I have programmed in Multiple languages over the last 20 years, and I have been learning Java for the last several months as part of my job. Object oriented programming is not a new concept to me. This book isolated the specifics of the Java languages in creating VERY usable classes within a design.

The book isolates 5 concepts to use in designing an Object oriented Java program, and lays out a solid set of rules that can be used for object oriented design even in languages other than Java.

This book uses UML in a clear and consistent manner that will also help clarify some UML ambiguieties for use in Java design - It clarified some UML ideas that other books expressed in highly convoluted ways (I have 3 other UML specific books) .

My issue with the book, is the software on the CD is not clear on its use, and added to the price without adding a lot of Value. The software on the CD is outdated and not possible to register. (you cannot even download a version that was mentioned on their website as of 07/2000 - the CD has version 2.2 and the mentioned software version on their website was 4.0 - but not available for download from togethersoft). If they cut out the CD and reduced the cost of this book it would be a much better value.

The content of the book, and its use of the Java "Interface" classes was excellent - not one of my dozen other Java books clarified this concept anywhere close to this book and it is on this topic that the book was of the greatest value to me.

I have recommended this to anyone needing to learn how to design their classes and programs - not how to code in Java.