Books on Python (for OO merit)

[William Tanksley]

On Sun, 02 May 1999 21:47:49 GMT, David M. Cook wrote:
><pvorishatesspam at earthlink.net> wrote:

>>That aside, I've read strong positive reviews of both the learning and
>>programming Python books.  Which one gives a better OO perspective?

>I recommend the rat book over the snake book as a better introduction to the
>language.

I liked Programming Python a lot, but then that's all that there was at
the time :-).

>For a better understanding of OO I recommend Bertrand Meyer's OOSC2 tome and
>the Design Patterns book.  Most of the other OO books I've seen have been a
>waste of paper.

OOSC2 is interesting, but IMO it's more of an advert for Meyer's company
(and the language they sell, Eiffel) than anything else.  It could be used
to design a nice OO language which looked like Eiffel, but I didn't find
any useful OO design information in it at all -- the closest I could see
was "write your design in Eiffel and then translate it over to whatever
language you're forced to actually use."

Don't let me dis it too much.  It's a good book, but I just found it to be
impractical.

Design Patterns is great, no two ways about it.  However, it's not about
OO design; it's about patterns.  Every OO designer should use it, but I'm
not sure it's that good of an intro.

I have to agree that all of the OO design books I can think of weren't
worth anything.  But then I haven't read some of the great originals --
I'm sure that some of the UML books must be decent.  Does anyone have some
recommendations?  I'm NOT looking for a novice book; at the same time, I
don't want raw theory.  Just OO Design.

One good way to start, and a book which you HAVE to get if you work with
C++, is Large-scale C++ Software Design, by John Lakos.  It's for people
who are familiar with C++, but my own light acquaintance was enough.  In
spite of the very practical focus on C++, the techniques and ways of
thinking are very helpful in general OO design.

>Rat book: http://www.bestbookbuys.com/cgi-bin/bbb.cgi?ISBN=1565924649
>OOSC2:    http://www.bestbookbuys.com/cgi-bin/bbb.cgi?ISBN=0136291554
>Patterns: http://www.bestbookbuys.com/cgi-bin/bbb.cgi?ISBN=0201633612

>Dave Cook

-- 
-William "Billy" Tanksley
"But you shall not escape my iambics."
           -- Gaius Valerius Catullus