OOP Demystified (Demystified)

Rating:
Summary: Very good OOP book - concise, clear, and brief
Review: I especially like reading Ch 8 -- Real-World Modeling. Not like all OOP books I read so far that the author will 'hard-sell' OOP as the best approach and by far better than procedural languages by simply demonistrating a small function and small application as to convince the readers.

The author in this book is so honest to point out the SKILLS needed to apply the OOP theory into a [workable and useful] BUSINESS application, and the difficulties the developers will surely encounter in REALITY when using OOP. This is helpful if business organization are thinking of using OOP as their solution rather than the 'already proven sounding' procedural languages and relational database in the business environment.

Rating:
Summary: Very good tutorial and review book on OOP...
Review: Target Audience
Developers who need an introduction to or a review of object-oriented programming.

Contents
This is an easily digestible tutorial on object-oriented programming (OOP) that can be used as an introductory or review text.

The book is divided into the following chapters:

A Look At How We See The World; What Is a Class?; Encapsulation; Methods and Polymorphism; Inheritance; Abstraction; Identifying and Describing Objects; Real-World Modeling; Collaboration; Case Modeling; Interfaces; Object-Oriented Programming Languages; Final Exam; Answers to Quizzes and Final Exam; Classes In Java; Classes In C++; Class Definitions In C#; Index

Review
My career as a programmer started in the world of Cobol. Because of that experience, I tend to think of programming in terms of procedural coding. When I got ready to make the jump to Java and object-oriented programming (OOP), I had a difficult time getting my mind wrapped around OOP concepts. The explanations of "an object is like an airplane" didn't cut it for me, because an airplane wasn't code. I needed something that explained the concepts from a coding perspective without trying to teach you a language at the same time. I would have done much better had OOP Demystified been around back then.

OOP Demystified is an approachable tutorial on OOP concepts for someone who doesn't come from that type of programming background. Each chapter explains a concept, shows examples from a Java and C-style coding viewpoint, and then ends with a test so that you can see if you've absorbed the material. If you've never seen Java or C code, the examples might be a little confusing, but not so much that you'd lose track of what's being discussed. The tone is conversational, so the barriers to learning are lowered.

An additional benefit to this book over earlier attempts is that the authors include Unified Modeling Language (UML) concepts as the book progresses. UML is the standard way of diagramming OOP systems, and programmers need to understand the basic methodology. While not a "teach yourself UML" course, the reader will pick up enough information to be able to work in that environment. The material will also allow you to move on to a more focused UML tutorial with little effort.

Even if you're not a complete novice to OOP, you will still benefit from having this book on your shelf. If you're like me and still have to think through the concepts on a regular basis, this volume will provide you with a quick refresher on the basic concepts that you can quickly review as needed. That's where my copy of this book will get most of its use.

Conclusion
If you're getting ready to dive into the world of Java or C#/C++ and you don't have a background in OOP, this will give you a good foundation of the concepts you'll need. And if OOP isn't your primary background, you'll appreciate it as a refresher guide in order to cement specific concepts.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good primer
Review: This book is a good primer for learning object oriented programming. It gives pretty good examples in Java, C# and C++. They are kept fairly short so you don't have to remember a lot of the code to understand the point they're trying to make.

I have one complaint about the book. Every one of their inheritance diagrams is backwards. The arrow should point UP to the Base class, not DOWN to the Derived class. This can be confusing when you look at their examples and then look at actual UML examples.