Following the excellent book by Grady Booch, reviewed in the issue before last, this book covers similar ground. The similarities are great but some differences are important. These are presented as orthogonal views of the system, and are described in a unified notation. Booch is a better read, dealing in more detail with the fundamentals of object- oriented programming, and dealing with organisational matters. His final examples of design are more detailed.
More space is given to details of the design method and less to the final examples.
A strength of the book is an abundance of exercises for the reader, with solutions to some of the more important ones. A complete methodology is presented, comprising analysis, system design, and object design phases, also an honest review of sometimes-preferable alternatives. The authors have also done some CASE development for their own purposes, but do not over-emphasise its usefulness. The principal technical difference is an extensive treatment of relations, or associations. A brief account of relational database concepts is included.