Rating: 
Summary: Extend'ing laid to rest
Review: The OO Programmers obsession with "extending" every class is finally laid to rest with this excellent book, and the case for "composition" strongly presented. Whilst the C++ jury may be out, Java programmers can get on with it. Easy to read and full of real-world examples this is the best design, object-orientated book I have come across. Anyone can learn the syntax and structure of a language but it's how the code is put together that determines the quality of the finished product. Just like you wouldn't let a builder start constructing your new home without a plan and design, you shouldn't do the same with your Java development. When you purchase Peter Coad book you also get added value. Visit his web site and you can subscribe to a twice weekly newsletter, get addendum's and new chapters to the book, a free Java Design Tool. Yes of course he wants you purchase courses, software and his next book but it does feel that he really wants you to be "Building Better Apps & Applets".
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for those who want to learn good design!
Review: This is a really good book if you want to learn how to design in java. It's not about java syntax, not about how polymorphism works, etc. It's an introduction to design. This book will get you reading the gof book and get you started on patterns. I read chapter 3 first, then chapters 1, 2 & 4. It's a really good book. I don't understand why others gave it a 1. Perhaps those who gave it a 1 are the those that are still struggling with simple java syntax. This is definitely not for them.I just got my Java Programmer certification from Sun. I'm now working on my Java Developer certification, the examples given on this book (Charlie's Charters) are similar to the software project that I downloaded from Sun. This book got me started on how I should design the software project. It really, really, really helps a lot especially if you're working on Sun's Java Developer certification.
Rating: 
Summary: A really good book.
Review: I read this book a few years ago and I remember it to be
a pretty decent book on design. It doesnt claim to teach you
how to do UML or Java. There are other books specifically for
that. Highly recommended if you want to learn about good design.
Books like these are *rare*. I am not sure what the reviewers who
gave this a low score were looking for in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book - Absolutely vital resource
Review: This is a beautiful OOD book. This is not yet another "Java tutorial". Again, this is a book for an OO programmer to use Java the right way. This is not a book for a "Java programmer" who wants to hack his way through the API & write kludgy code. You do NOT have to be Java-certified to own this book. Knowing Java is like owning a hammer. You still have to be an architect to build a house. THis book ,thus, is about architecture. If you just want to buy a hammer, go to a hardware shop. I have read & reread this book atleast 10 times. It is still my favorite place to look for design advice, and whenever I come across "subclassed utility classes", I always throw this book on the programmer making such gross mistakes. People whose first Java program consists of extending JFrame ( as is done in 100s of "Java tutorials" ) should read this book & weep in shame for having foisted their bad code on the community. This book advocates 5 simple design rules & then goes in depth to explain the hows & whys of each rule. Each of these rules are overarching & ultimately make or break a well designed system. I heartily recommend this book to every Java designer. If you are just another Sun-certified Java hacker who thinks he knows Java back & forwards, you probably are missing the whole point here. This book again is NOT about teaching a language or some arcane class library. It is about good OO & good design techniques. Buy it. Read it. Practise it. Advocate it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for "legacy gray beard" learning Java/OO Design
Review: First things first. I originally read this book many months ago, and I have revisited it many times since. The book remains prominant on my book shelf. At that time, what were my expectations for this book ? I was not an OO application programmer/developer who viewed the world through OO design patterns. I was a "gray beard" systems integrator who was developing an in-depth understanding of "distributed object application server" integration issues with legacy systems. Java was/remains my context in which to master OOA/OOD and coding without the hassles of the C++ environment, but with the benefits of "free" Java IDEs downloadable from the WEB (I especially like the VisualAge Java IDE). Along with many other books (for example Design Patterns from the 'Gang of Four'), hours of studying and practical coding, I found this book very, very helpful. Since all the other design books were C++/Smalltalk oriented, a Java design book was readily appreciated. Of course, with experience, interpreting C++ code snipets to Java is not very difficult, but at the time I read this book the Java examples were very helpful. Some of the (now in retrospect very basic concepts) clear explanations of "what I know, who I know, etc.", were invaluable. The book's style is different; somewhat refreshing actually. I would prefer the book to be entirely on the CD so I could travel with it and use it for reference on occasion. Before I got Rose, the included software for working with designs was also very helpful. I look forward to follow on work .... but more advanced this time .... this book has made its contribution. Thanks again for a very helpful text.
Rating:
Summary: Best book to get you into OO class-level design concepts
Review: This book was a significant stepping stone in my development in OO thinking. This book immerses you in the thought process of OO. If you feel that you haven't quite clicked with OO design, and pattern books are leaving you puzzled, then read this - give it a month - then read it again. The you'll then probably think many of the GoF patterns quite obvious, and wonder what all the fuss was about. For example the Bridge pattern, and the Factory patterns are just implementing plugability concepts of Ch 3.
Rating:
Summary: Has some valuable info, but hard to follow
Review: I just finished reading this book, and still can't describe "in 25 words" what it is about.
I am not sure whether I am not ready for it, or the authors present their material in such a way, but I was put to sleep after about 20 minutes of reading. So I had to read in short sessions, and it took me a while to finish this book. And even though I realize that it does contain some sound design principles and some good ideas, I can't say that I have picked up anything that I am going to use in my coding practice.
It's a bit unusual to me, but it feels like the writing style precluded me from picking up the useful information contained in the book.
I think, I'll give this book another try some time later.
Rating: 
Summary: Bit of a scam really
Review: There are hundreds of books out there which deal with all of the low-level Java stuff, some of them excellent. I would like to echo the point made by some other reviewers that there is a shortage of books which deal with some of the higher level topics such as application design. I've been working as a Java programmer for about 8 months and I've worked my way through countless introductory books (Beginning Java 2, Horton; Just Java, van der Linden; Thinking in Java, Eckel - that type of thing). These books are great, and I now feel they've taught me most of what I need to know at that level, but I'm finding it hard to make the jump from knowing how to perform relatively small tasks using Java to designing large, complex applications. I know there is only one way to really do this - practice & experience - but I could do with a few books to help. I flipped through this book for about 10 minutes in the shop, and it seemed like it was just what I was looking for so I bought it. However, after reading it for a couple of hours I realised that it is in fact a bit rubbish. I was attracted by the chapters about design using interfaces, and there are certainly plenty of UML class diagrams featuring interfaces, but the accompanying text is so brief and so badly written that it is impossible to work out what points the authors are trying to put across. Furthermore, there are plenty of mistakes in the text and in the diagrams which in my opinion is just criminal - these concepts are extremely tricky to understand, and if you feel like you've grasped something and then you check out the next diagram and it's contradicted then you assume you must be missing something when you are in fact correct. I agree with other reviewers that this book employs cheap tactics: lots of whitespace, repetition, unneccessary diagrams.
If I hadn't broken the seal on the CD sleeve before I realised this book was poor, I would have taken it back. £36.50 for a 300 page book too. what a swizz....
Rating:
Summary: Skip this book both for Java and for Design practices
Review: I will not write an extensive review because I think just about any book is better: Try "Design Patterns" by Gamma, Helm, Johnson, and Vlissides, "Thinking in Java" by Eckels, "Concurrent Programming in Java" by Lea, and "The Practice of Programming" by Kernigan and Pike for books which meet and exceed all the goals of this book. That having been said: this book is a terrible book because of several severe errors in content (mostly dealing with concurrent programming) and the author's almost exclusive reliance on pictures and diagrams to make points rather than prose and explanations. Perhaps if he would discuss the meaning of his pictures and diagrams (which are in some form of UML, of which being a professional user, it was very poorly done) and use them on marginally real-world examples, the book would have been better. A final issue with this book is the author never justifies most of his assertions, nor even explains partially the "why" of many of them. Although I read many books, and some I may indeed consider "below me" in that I already fully understood and/or applied their contents, almost every book I read has some perspective, topic, or point from which I learn or verify my current knowledge or practice. This book, honestly, had none, and was misleading or downright wrong on several. In sum, this is perhaps the worst Java or Design book I have read, and I have a seven foot by four foot bookshelf (and then some) devoted to computer books. Not recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Java Design - the focus is on DESIGN
Review: I read all of the reviews on this book, and found it disturbing how the ratings for this book could go high and low, with few in between. I read the book, and found it helped me personally in my efforts with developing in Java. The KISS (Keep it simple stupid) method will survive the test of time. I kept thinking about the review disparities as I read the book. I think that the reviewers who gave low marks were looking for a different kind of book, that might be more related to Java coding tricks - not sure, as I cannot ask them. However this book focuses on program design, and the reviews on the high side focused on this - which is exactly what I was looking for. I have programmed in Multiple languages over the last 20 years, and I have been learning Java for the last several months as part of my job. Object oriented programming is not a new concept to me. This book isolated the specifics of the Java languages in creating VERY usable classes within a design. The book isolates 5 concepts to use in designing an Object oriented Java program, and lays out a solid set of rules that can be used for object oriented design even in languages other than Java. This book uses UML in a clear and consistent manner that will also help clarify some UML ambiguieties for use in Java design - It clarified some UML ideas that other books expressed in highly convoluted ways (I have 3 other UML specific books) . My issue with the book, is the software on the CD is not clear on its use, and added to the price without adding a lot of Value. The software on the CD is outdated and not possible to register. (you cannot even download a version that was mentioned on their website as of 07/2000 - the CD has version 2.2 and the mentioned software version on their website was 4.0 - but not available for download from togethersoft). If they cut out the CD and reduced the cost of this book it would be a much better value. The content of the book, and its use of the Java "Interface" classes was excellent - not one of my dozen other Java books clarified this concept anywhere close to this book and it is on this topic that the book was of the greatest value to me. I have recommended this to anyone needing to learn how to design their classes and programs - not how to code in Java.
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