Beginning Object-Oriented Analysis and Design: With C++

Books on object-oriented design can occasionally get bogged down in theory, but certainly not Jesse Liberty's Beginning Object- Oriented Analysis and Design with C++. This readable text covers all you need to know about the software engineering process and object-oriented design and includes real-world examples.

Liberty's tour of software engineering begins with analysis, where he uses examples from a video-store database. He then details class design and use cases that show off how the various players interact. Liberty also discusses architectural issues, including Web deployment, such as HTTP and CGI, and using CORBA and DCOM to handle distributed processing. Throughout this book the author relies on UML notation for all the basic notational diagrams (a handy appendix contains the basics of UML notation).

Once Liberty explains how the design is created, he turns toward implementation, or coding, in C++ (specifically with the Microsoft Foundation Classes). He shares some useful information about storing (or persisting) objects, describing basics such as relational databases and data structures in C++ code and even sharing cutting-edge ideas about object-oriented databases that can store and retrieve objects from your code. Liberty always presents issues of transaction management for robust, distributed systems. The author also includes some valuable tips for testing, debugging, and deployment for software. This useful survey, which describes the best tools and techniques without being overly doctrinaire, shows Liberty's expertise.

The book concludes with a workable--though small--example of a software utility, including all supporting documents from the software development cycle so the reader can see the complete picture. Overall, Beginning Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with C++ covers a lot of ground while putting some fun into the art of software engineering. --Richard V. Dragan