Design by Contract by Example

Author: Richard Mitchell, Jim McKim
List Price: $44.99
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0201634600
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co (15 October, 2001)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 254,948
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5

Buy now directly from Amazon.com - Purchase this book, safely and securely from the largest book dealer on the Internet, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

Rating: 5 out of 5
Great book. Great authors
I had a class with Dr. McKim as part of my requirements for my Masters. He is VERY good. I must say, I am little biased here, but I liked him as a lecturer and I bought this book as soon as it came out and I love it. I had never actually used the concept of Design by Contracts anywhere until my class with Dr. McKim. If you are a developer or an architect for any OO based language (Eiffel, c++, java, '), you read this book and use it as your reference.


Rating: 5 out of 5
The best tutorial on design by contract
Despite its' power, design by contract is an underutilized software development technique. That is most likely explained by the speed of software development and the time that would be required to learn it well enough to use it. Most developers either do not, or feel that they do not have the time to stop and learn how to use design by contract effectively. Well, the former group simply cannot be helped, as not even design by contract will extend the time in a day. However, for the latter group, this book is for you.
Design by contract is not difficult to learn, as is demonstrated in this book. The examples are very easy to understand and are chosen for their combination of ease of use as well as having applicability to the kinds of programs that developers create. While Eiffel and Java are used to create the examples, it is not critical that you know them to understand the code. The only requirement is that you understand the basic principles of object-oriented programming. While some background in logic would be helpful, all that is needed is what is required for writing correct Boolean expressions in programs.
I am a big proponent of the design by contract model of software development. The writing of the contract principles forces a level of intellectual rigor that can dramatically improve the quality of your software. In this book, you can not only learn how to do it, but you will also learn how to do it well and the ways in which you can do it wrong. I have placed it in my list of the top ten books of the year.


Rating: 5 out of 5
Mitchell and McKim have done a great job
I read this book cover-to-cover, something I had rarely done in the past with technically oriented books; and I truly enjoyed the experience. Mitchell and McKim have done an exceptional job of not only portraying the essence of contracts but also the importance of these artifacts in software design. Design by Contract by Example is written carefully, accurately and with the reader in mind. My compliments go to the authors.

Similar Products

· Software Architecture in Practice, Second Edition
· The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
· Object-Oriented Software Construction (Book/CD-ROM) (2nd Edition)
· Bertrand Meyer's .NET Training Course

Return To Main Computer Book IndexSearch Our Entire Computer Book Catalog