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I
n
today's fast-changing information technology world, Clemens Szyperski's
Component
Software: Beyond Object-Oriented Programming
looks like a promising
guide through the maze of objects, components, and distribution.
Let's see whether it holds what it
seems to promise. It contains the following five parts:
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Part I, "Motivation: Components and
Markets" (26 pages), introduces components.
-
Part II, "Foundation" (142 pages), explains
the technological and conceptual basis of components and their relationship
to distribution and the object paradigm.
-
Part III, "State of the Art" (102 pages),
provides a look at existing component models, such as Microsoft's approach
with COM, OLE, and ActiveX.
-
Part IV, "The Next Generation" (58 pages),
looks at two additional advanced component models: OpenDoc and Black Box
Component Framework (a product of the author's cofounded company, Oberon
Microsystems).
-
Part V, "Markets and Components" (16
pages), takes a look at the future component market and possible future
component-related professions.
The book left us with ambiguous feelings.
Part II is one of the best unbiased and detailed explanations that we've
ever come across about the concepts of component technology and its relationship
to the object paradigm and distribution. However, not all parts of the
book are so valuable. In the preface, Clemens Szyperski acknowledges the
problem that the book runs into: "I completed this book in the first half
of 1997. In a rapidly emerging and changing field, a certain part of the
book is likely to be out of date soon." This is definitely true, especially
for Parts III and IV.
From today's point of view, Part
III, about the latest history in component technology, is much broader
than necessary, considering the actual technology's developments. Part
IV?seen from today?deals with interesting corner issues of component technology;
it is devoted to
OpenDoc
(a technology that didn't survive in the marketplace) and Black Box Component
Framework (an approach that didn't get much public attention at all). Today's
hottest component topic?server components?is only mentioned in a short,
half-page description of the technical aspects of Microsoft's Transaction
Server in the chapter about Microsoft's component approach. The latest
developments, Enterprise Java Beans and CORBA Components, are not mentioned
at all.
The bottom line is that
Component
Software: Beyond Object-Oriented Programming
contains an excellent
description of the technical concepts of components as well their relationship
to the object paradigm and distribution, but the discussions of the concrete
component models are unfortunately outdated.
Angelika Langer
develops
and teaches classes on advanced C++, STL, multithreading, internationalization,
and Java. She served on the ANSI/ISO C++ Committee from 1993 to 1998.
Klaus
Kreft
is a software architect and consultant with 15+ years of experience
in industrial software development. At present he works for Siemens Business
Services in Germany. Langer and Kreft are authors of "Standard C++ IOStreams
and Locales" and are columnists for
C++
Report
.
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URL:
<
http://www.AngelikaLanger.com/Articles/Reviews/Szyperski/review.htm>