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All of the books
in the Planet Source Code 'recommended readings' are best-of-breed tomes.
However, I am not exagerating in any way when I say that this book blows
every other book I've read in the past 2 years completely away.
Let me
first warn you that this book is NOT a programming book--it is an OO book.
So if you still get confused when you hear the word 'method' instead of
'sub' or 'function', or if you think 'inheritance' only refers to
how much you can expect to receive from your favorite aunt when she dies,
you are probably not ready for this one yet. However, if you have a
solid understanding of OO concepts and the experience to match, then this
book can take your object designs, frameworks and implentations from the
advanced level into the rarified air of the top 10% of all OO system
designers and builders.
Am I
gushing about this book? I probably am, but I feel it deserves it.
A reviewer from Amazon.com echoes my sentiment when he says, "
When it comes to actually designing and implementing object technology,
the second volume of Ambler's trilogy is undoubtedly the best book so far
in the software development business."
If you're a frequent
reader of OO texts, you'll find that most are more like religious
treatises on the benefits of OO, rather than pragmatic instruction on how
to build real-world systems. This book strikes a defiant stand
against that trend. From topics like 'How to build an A-class object
framework' to 'Constructing superior diagrams', to "How to persist
objects', this book delivers invaluable information that would take a new
OO developer years to discover on his/her own.
If there is anything bad
to say about this book, it is that occasionally the reader is forced to
endure a little bit more of Ambler's ego than would be desired.
(Let's put it this way...the guy created his own modeling notation and
named it after himself) However, in a genre where egos seem to run
more rampant than rednecks do in the country-side, Ambler is hardly the
worst offender (...right away, Booch comes to mind right away as being
much worse...).
So to
summarize, this book is fantastic, and I heartily recommend it. It
will help almost every developer do his/her job much better than they are
now.
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