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Summary: Insightful analysis of software components
Review: A beautifully written and researched book, Component Software is a fascinating study of the practical aspects of making components work in software development. Touching on Java, CORBA, COM, architectures, frameworks, component assembly, domain standards and much more, the author gives the reader an impressive panaroma of the state-of-the-art in component technology.....But this doesn't do justice to the expressiveness, insight, and impressive range of integration between fields of component study that Szyperski puts into this book. You will not find a more useful addition to your library about component technology and we recommend it strongly. -- Object News Book Reviews
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Summary: A 'must read'.
Review: Clemens Szyperski's ability to describe and explain complex systems is almost unparalleled in software literature. If you need to understand software componentry, you must read this book.
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Summary: Excellent book
Review: I am relatively new to "components" and after reading a few disappointing books, I found this gem of a book quite by chance. This is not your typical introductory fluffy book - it is very technical and detailed in parts, but provides a good roadmap for beginning readers who want just an overview before digging into thte details. Besides providing a good perspective about Java, Corba, COM etc., the unique thing about this book is that the author also discusses their differences from two different perspectives - the technical (academic) differences and the "real-world" differences (i.e. how they impact your software infrastructure. Very well-written (dont be put off by a typo in the very sentence of chapter 1 - its the only typo I noticed)
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Summary: Easy Reading
Review: I got this book by almost by accident waiting for one of those Japanesse Fish barns to open.It explained many of the issues that occur in OO development - problems with extreme re-use - fragile base class problem, "changing the way you do business" and many others. I actually found these non-component chapters in some ways more useful than the others. Then went on to discuss components in a very concrete and thorough way. It gives enough info in order to make a real judgement on whether to embrace components or not. I would buy it again for either of the two reasons.
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Summary: The definitive text for component software
Review: If found this book very enlightening. It is the first book I have seen that discusses component oriented software in a real world way. Mind you this is a text book, not your typical programming book, so some of its appeal will be limited. However, for anyone doing any serious thinking about component software this book is a must read. The author (one of the principles behind Oberon and Component Pascal) very carefully avoids taking explicit sides in the so-called "component wars" (the same cannot be said about his stance on objects v. components, he clearly believes OO has failed to live up to its promises). However, I think the book is (indirectly) about Microsoft's COM in that it explains, in a very detailed, academic sort of way, the same principles that are behind COM. I don't think the author intended to write a book about COM, it's just that his ideas and the ideas of the designers of COM appear to be very similar. At 28 chapters & 411 pages this is a long book. It covers a lot of material. Some parts are pretty hard to read because they are so academically grounded. The author recognizes this and warns the reader beforehand. Most of the sections I found hard to read could easily be skipped over without detracting from the real value the book provides.
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Summary: A superb foundation for understanding software components
Review: If you are wondering what a component is - READ THIS BOOK! It gives you an excellent foundation of components and component technologies irrespective of any particular implementation or commercial product. It will allow you to distinguish between component systems and those that are not. C. J. Date's book on the definition and properties of relational database systems was a landmark book. This book does the same for component technologies. Get smarter - get this book. Totally Awesome!
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Summary: Great Book!
Review: It was refreshing to read a book with objective analysis without any marketing hype and propaganda that you find in other books in the market. I particularly liked the section where the author gives an unbiased comparison of COM/DCOM, CORBA, and JavaBean.
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Summary: Best conceptual foundation around
Review: Szyperski has written a truly outstanding introduction to component software systems. This is the most complete, clearest introduction to the basic problems and practice of component software development that I've seen. After the introductory chapter, about the first third of the book discusses object oriented development. That's no contradiction: OO technology is usually the implementation vehicle for component systems. Szyperski adds (or at least collects) real content about OO technique, including the problematic relationship between 'contracts' and callbacks, language features for containment and control, and the many needs that current OO languages don't meet. Lots of the discussion sounds like 'the loyal opposition' - he supports OO practice, even demands it, but is harshly critical of the OO techniques that cause real problems. The remainder of the book describes requirements of a workable component system and a workable component industry. If done right, component software really could solve a lot of problems: squabbling in multi-vendor environments, maintenance across multiple generations of releases, and more. The theoretical discussion is backed up with case studies, including JavaBeans, CORBA, and OpenDoc. The would-be component user won't find a lot here; this book is really for the component or component framework developer. Developers, however, should not expect a lot of direct, technical detail. This discusses principles, not implementation. That's my one real disappointment in this book: the lack of detail. Even the case studies are brief and somewhat shallow. Those problems are easy to fix, however, with other books on specific APIs, systems, and development techniques. If you are planning a component-based system, whether as a component user or a component developer, this book may be essential. It gives a complete, critical view of what components can do and what they should but cannot yet do. As you go through development, you'll come back to this book (or at least to its issues) again and again.
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Summary: Great Book!
Review: Szyperski's book discusses component software from an unusual point of view: as an academic and a professional. This perspective provides the reader with the best of both worlds: a discussion of essential academic object and component concepts as well as a pragmatic review of existing component systems. In particular, the important topics that Szyperski covers include callbacks and their impact on reuse, reentrant code, component interface specification with contracts, subtyping (co/contravariance), code and behavioral inheritance, and finally safety and progress specifications. Each of these topics is critical to the development of robust and reusable components. Szyperski's discussion of todays' component frameworks (loosely, CORBA, COM, and Java) shows his biases, but they are objectively justified. Finally, the author discusses the next generation of component architectures. Included in this discussion is a brief foray into OpenDoc! , a discussion of Oberon Microsystems' BlackBox component framework, and Portos and Denia, two hard realtime component frameworks. Any designer or developer that uses or builds components must read this book. It will help the good component designer/developer/manager become a _great_ component thinker.
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Summary: A new bible for component designers, developers, and users.
Review: Szyperski's book discusses component software from an unusual point of view: as an academic and a professional. This perspective provides the reader with the best of both worlds: a discussion of essential academic object and component concepts as well as a pragmatic review of existing component systems. In particular, the important topics that Szyperski covers include callbacks and their impact on reuse, reentrant code, component interface specification with contracts, subtyping (co/contravariance), code and behavioral inheritance, and finally safety and progress specifications. Each of these topics is critical to the development of robust and reusable components. Szyperski's discussion of todays' component frameworks (loosely, CORBA, COM, and Java) shows his biases, but they are objectively justified. Finally, the author discusses the next generation of component architectures. Included in this discussion is a brief foray into OpenDoc! , a discussion of Oberon Microsystems' BlackBox component framework, and Portos and Denia, two hard realtime component frameworks. Any designer or developer that uses or builds components must read this book. It will help the good component designer/developer/manager become a _great_ component thinker.
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