Component Software: Beyond Object-Oriented Programming (ACM Press)

'This book provides an insightful analysis of existing component technology and is an extremely valuable contribution to the field. It will help you understand what it takes to get from object-oriented to component-oriented programming.' Erich Gamma Insightful analysis of software components 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 ckindel@microsoft.com from Redmond, WA , 01/27/98, rating=9: The definitive text for component software 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.