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From: johnson@m.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Advice on design
Message-ID: <4800099@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 24 Aug 90 14:02:00 GMT
References: <150457@<1990Aug22>
Lines: 28
Nf-ID: #R:<1990Aug22:150457:m.cs.uiuc.edu:4800099:000:1378
Nf-From: m.cs.uiuc.edu!johnson    Aug 24 09:02:00 1990


>EventualIy, I think that we will develop an approach to design that is
>uniquely suited to C++.  It's still evolving (as is the language), which is
>why there isn't much in print.

If true, this would be very bad.  Design is supposed to be different
from implementation, so it would be odd if every language required a
unique design approach.

In fact, I don't think it is true.  At the high-level design stage,
C++ can be treated like any other object-oriented programming
language.  There are particular problems like memory management,
but I consider these implementation problems instead of design
problems, though that is probably a bit artificial.

Booch's book is good.  I also recommend "Designing Object-Oriented
Software" by Rebecca Wirfs-Broch, Brian Wilkerson, and Lauren
Wiener, from Prentice Hall.  ISBN 0-13-629825-7.  It teaches the
CRC design method.  The two books are very different.  The second
one is much more practical, with checklists and large examples.
It is written by a bunch of practicioners who got shanghaied
into teaching and had to figure out how to explain what they did.
Booch is an expert in software engineering, who approaches things 
from a more theoretical point of view than WWW, but who does not
spend most of his time building applications.  I think both books
are valuable.

Ralph Johnson - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign