Object-Oriented Design & Patterns (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

• Introduces object-oriented fundamentals critical to designing software and shows how to implement design techniques
• Horstmann’s clear, hands-on presentation and outstanding writing style help readers to better understand the material
• Useful sidebars cover relevant data structures
• C++ notes throughout the book illustrate object-oriented programming concepts that are not available with Java
• An online UML editor (designed by the author) allows readers to create and test UML code
• Also available from Cay Horstmann, the highly successful Computing Concepts with Java Essentials, Third Edition (0-471-24371-X); Computing Concepts with C++ Essentials, Third Edition (0-471-16437-2), and Big Java (0-471-40248-6)

From the Back Cover

This hands-on-guide-written by one of the most successful authors in programming-makes design patterns and principles accessible to everyone! Drawing from his extensive experience as a programmer, consultant and teacher, Horstmann introduces object-oriented design principles, and gives you a roadmap for applying these principles and techniques in your own designs.

• Each topic is illustrated with a high-interest example that introduces you to user interface programming and the full range of Java language features. As you build your programming skills, you will also learn good design practice.
• This book uses Java as its implementation language, and also covers additional OOD strat egies that are available in C++ and other object-oriented languages.
• The book includes a crash course in Java, covering all the basic language constructs for anyone not familiar with the language.
• Horstmann integrates the latest and most effective tools such as BlueJ, javadoc, and JUnit, as well as other experimental tools.
• The Capstone chapter introduces design principles and shows you how to create an easy-to-use UML diagram editor.
• The guide will reach you important skills, including:
  - using UML for modeling
  - unit testing and programming by contract
  - programming GUI applications
  - understanding classical design patterns
  - using and designing frameworks

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (April 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047131966X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471319665
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,080,150 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much and not enough, September 13, 2003

By	wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

I came away from this book wondering just who was meant to read it. It starts with "A Crash Course in Java." (Somehow, I never learned to like any "crash" in the context of program design.) This is much too brief to teach the language, or even summarize it well. Any of many other books would be better for teaching Java to C++ programmers.

Next, the book goes through two chapters of object oriented design. These chapters are over in about 100 pages - again, not nearly enough time to address OO design in with any real insight. The OO paradigm is truly different from previous generations of software design, and can not be summed up in a few pages of rote rules.

Worse, the author identifies "javadoc" as a design documentation tool! It is not. Javadoc does a very good job of documenting implementation, but it documents design very badly. If you're not a programmer, trust me - implementation and design are as different as carpentry and architecture. Neither is better than the other, and both are needed to build a house. Implementation is not design, though, and the two require very different documentation.

The rest of of the book continues in an odd pastiche including:
-- ideas the programmer already needed to understand the earlier material,
-- afterthoughts on the Java language, scattered among other topics,
-- a weak discussion of design patterns, and
-- a severely flawed discussion of multithreading.

Only this last deserves attention. Multithreading is a subtle topic. It's easy to write multithreaded code, but very hard to write it correctly. The author actually does a good job of discussing interruption in threads. However, the book's description of synchronization and deadlock is so brief that it leaves me worried - student programmers might read that material and come away thinking they understood the topics. Insufficient knowledge may be worse than none at all, in this case. Most distressing, the author makes no apparent mention of "volatile" data in Java. Multithreaded applications don't need to use volatile data. The programmer MUST understand when volatility is a problem, though, and avoid it or address it directly. It is unacceptable to ignore the risks addressed by "volatile" declarations.

I can not recommend this book. It claims to address object oriented design, Java, and design patterns. I feel that it does an inadequate job on all counts.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Object-Oriented Design and Pattersn by Cay Horstmann, October 1, 2004

By	whiteBull "whiteBull" - See all my reviews

Reviewer: Dr. Alexander Yakhnis, [e-mail]

I like the book and have taught Spring 2004 Object-oriented Development (CSC 429 ) course at SUNY College at Brockport, New York. I have taught the material from Chapter I through 6. I have also used the material from Ch. 8 Object-Oriented Frameworks for 2 Independent Study Courses with 2 students during Summer 2004.

I find chapters 4 and 5 the best hands on introduction to Design Patterns that makes the corresponding material of The Gang of Four book quite understandable and it is better by far than many other attempts to introduce design patterns. The author plays to an advantage the use of Java and its libraries already based on some of the design patterns that many other authors have not exploited despite existence of Design Patterns presented in Java.

I also find the choice of 5 patterns: Iterator, Strategy, Observer, Composite and Decorator very tasteful as well as very useful. The author's problem examples illustrating the use of design patterns, particularly, the Invoice example is excellent.

The material in Ch. 4 on Interface Types leads to design patterns gracefully, and one can obviously recognize Strategy patter playing important role unnamed yet. This looks to me a good arrangement. Exercises reinforce the ideas very well. If some more exercises will be added that would be a nice improvement.

The author succeeds in making clear the concept of Object-Oriented Frameworks in introductory textbook. Separation of a framework and applications built on it is very well presented. Use of sequence diagrams helps to understand OO Framework. I would suggest that the concept of a Use Case and collaboration diagrams as alternative to sequence diagrams helps to get into the heart of how a framework achieves a goal relevant to a user. An excellent example of such a goal is presented in Ch. 8 for the Graph Framework.

When I was teaching the course I have attempted to replace The Object-Oriented Design Process from Ch. 2 by elements of Craig Larman textbook Applying UML and Patterns (Completely different patterns there than the 5 mentioned above). It helped me to reinforce software engineering concepts taught by Craig Larman that I have taught in software engineering course and also provided good point of view for understanding the OO Frameworks where some of the goals served by an OO Framework are viewed as Use Cases.

I would use the book again for CSC 429 Object-Oriented Development without hesitation should I be teaching this course again. Also, I continue to use OO Design and Patterns as a source of material for Independent Studies.

Finally, I congratulate the author for making available and understandable the concept of Design Patterns as practical way of building OO software at undergraduate level.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An ideal intro to OOD by an insightful author., December 4, 2003

By A Customer

The previous reviewer sounds like he is looking for an all in one reference. Indeed, if you are a professional programmer and need a reference book, this one is not for you. However, if you're a student, new to OO programming/design or just want to add to your programming knowledge, this is a perfect book. It's designed for the classroom first (see the preface and exercises!), but is also useful for anyone who learned to program in C++ or Java and wants more sophisticated OO coverage. It is certainly not intended to teach the entire language. Rather, it assumes you already know how to program and want to learn more about Object-Oriented Design, including UML and design patterns. This is an important topic and it's never been introduced in a clearer, more intersting way than it is in this book.