The developer of the acclaimed Eiffel programming language comes through with one of the clearest and most informative books about computers ever committed to paper. Object-Oriented Software Construction is the gospel of object-oriented technology and it deserves to be spread everywhere. Meyer opens with coverage of the need for an object-oriented approach to software development, citing improved quality and development speed as key advantages of the approach.

He then explains all the key criteria that define an object-oriented approach to a problem. Meyer pays attention to techniques, such as classes, objects, memory management, and more, returning to each technique and polishing his readers' knowledge of it as he explains how to employ it "well". In a section on advanced topics, Meyer explores interesting and relevant topics, such as persistent objects stored in a database. He also offers a sort of "Do and Don't" section in which he enumerates common mistakes and ways to avoid them.

Management information isn't the main point of Object-Oriented Software Construction, but you'll find some in its pages. Meyer concludes his tour de force with comparisons of all the key object-oriented languages, including Java. He also covers the potential of simulating object technology in non-object-oriented languages, such as Pascal and Fortran. The companion CD-ROM includes the full text of this book in hypertext form, as well as some tools for designing object-oriented systems. If you program computers, you need to read this book. --Jake Bond

The definitive reference on the most important new technology in software!

“While the original version of OOSC is a classic, OOSC 2/E is destined to overshadow it and all other general introductions . . . literally an epic work.”

―James C. McKim, Jr., Hartford Graduate Center

“Compelling. Extremely well-written and literate . . . I recaptured that same sense of intellectual excitement I felt reading the first edition for the first time.”

―Paul Dubois, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Editor, Scientific Programming Dept., Computers in Physics

“The definitive tome on Object-Orientation . . . the finest piece of writing and thinking about this vast subject . . . Bertrand has a lot to say of great importance and says it well in this significantly revised book.”

―Richard Wiener, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Editor, Journal for Object-Oriented Programming

A whole generation was introduced to object technology through the first edition of Bertrand Meyer's OOSC. This long-awaited new edition retains the qualities of clarity, practicality and scholarship that made the first an instant best-seller. It has been thoroughly revised and considerably expanded. No other book on the market provides such a breadth and depth of coverage on the most important technology in software development.

SOME OF THE NEW TOPICS COVERED IN DEPTH BY THIS SECOND EDITION:

• Concurrency, distribution, client-server and the Internet.
• Object-oriented databases, persistence, schema evolution.
• Design by contract: how to build software that works the first time around.
• A study of fundamental design patterns.
• How to find the classes and many others topics of object-oriented methodology.
• How to use inheritance well and detect misuses.
• Abstract data types: the theory behind object technology.
• Typing: role, issues and solutions.
• More than 400 references to books, articles, Web pages, newsgroups; glossary of object technology.
• And many new developments on the topics of the first edition: reusability, modularity, software quality, O-O languages, inheritance techniques, genericity, memory management, etc.

Table of Contents

PART A: THE ISSUES

Chapter 1: Software quality

Chapter 2: Criteria of object orientation

PART B: THE ROAD TO OBJECT ORIENTATION

Chapter 3: Modularity

Chapter 4: Approaches to reusability

Chapter 5: Towards object technology

Chapter 6: Abstract data types

PART C: OBJECT-ORIENTED TECHNIQUES

Chapter 7: The static structure: classes

Chapter 8: The run-time structure: objects

Chapter 9: Memory management

Chapter 10: Genericity

Chapter 11: Design by Contract: building reliable software

Chapter 12: When the contract is broken: exception handling

Chapter 13: Supporting mechanisms

Chapter 14: Introduction to inheritance

Chapter 15: Multiple inheritance

Chapter 16: Inheritance techniques

Chapter 17: Typing

Chapter 18: Global objects and constants

PART D: OBJECT-ORIENTED METHODOLOGY: APPLYING THE METHOD WELL

Chapter 19: On methodology

Chapter 20: Design pattern: multi-panel interactive systems

Chapter 21: Inheritance case study: “undo” in an interactive system

Chapter 22: How to find the classes

Chapter 23: Principles of class design

Chapter 24: Using inheritance well

Chapter 25: Useful techniques

Chapter 26: A sense of style

Chapter 27: Object-oriented analysis

Chapter 28: The software construction process

Chapter 29: Teaching the method

PART E: ADVANCED TOPICS

Chapter 30: Concurrency, distribution, client-server and the Internet

Chapter 31: Object persistence and databases

Chapter 32: Some O-O techniques for graphical interactive applications

PART F: APPLYING THE METHOD IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES AND ENVIRONMENTS

Chapter 33: O-O programming and Ada

Chapter 34: Emulating object technology in non-O-O environments

Chapter 35: Simula to Java and beyond: major O-O languages and environments

PART G: DOING IT RIGHT

Chapter 36: An object-oriented environment

PART H: APPENDICES

Appendix A: Extracts from the Base libraries

Appendix B: Genericity versus inheritance

Appendix C: Principles, rules, precepts and definitions

Appendix D: A glossary of object technology

Appendix E: Bibliography

About the Author

BERTRAND MEYER is one of the pioneers of modern software engineering, whose experience spans both industry and academia. He has led the development of successful O-O products and libraries totaling thousands of classes. His Prentice Hall books include Object Success (an introduction to object technology for managers), Introduction to the Theory of Programming Languages, Eiffel: The Language, Object-Oriented Applications, and Reusable Software. He is a frequent keynote speaker at international conferences and consultant for Fortune 500 companies, editor of the Object-Oriented Series, associate member of the applications section of the French Academy of Sciences, chairman of the TOOLS conference series, and editor of the Object Technology department of IEEE Computer.