Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Shark8 <onewingedshark@gmail.com>]

On Friday, July 20, 2012 4:05:11 AM UTC-6, Brian Drummond wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Jul 2012 08:34:01 +0200, Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> 
> > On 19.07.12 20:46, Simon Wright wrote:
> >> Brian Drummond <brian@shapes.demon.co.uk> writes:
> >>
> >>> One not mentioned so far is Grady Booch and Doug Bryan : Software
> >>> Engineering with Ada. I don't know how well it is regarded now, but I
> >>> thought it was good when I read it. Given the Booch Components are
> >>> still around, it may be worth considering.
> >>
> >> The book discusses the Original Booch Components, at
> >> http://www.adapower.com/original_booch/, not the Ada 95 components at
> >> https://sourceforge.net/projects/booch95/.
> >>
> >>
> > I think there are two different books here, the first by Booch and
> > Bryan,
> > Software Engineering with Ada (1994 (3rd ed.) and earlier);
> > the second by Booch: Software Components with Ada (1987).
> > 
> > There is one recurring pattern in the first book, maybe worth
> > mentioning:
> > 
> >   * Identify the objects 
> >   * Identify the operations 
> >   * Establish the visibility 
> >   * Establish the interface
> > (* Evaluate the objects )
> >   * Implement each object
> > 
> > The authors explain these steps in an introductory section titled "An
> > Object-Oriented Design Method".
> 
> Thanks Georg,
> I was unaware of the second book, but thought the first would be a good 
> exposition of the thought process behind them.
> 
> The design method he describes has a distinctly ... dated, or perhaps 
> classical? feel in these days of "extreme programming" and "test driven 
> development". 
> 
> Is it still relevant, outside of areas that can afford the full weight of 
> formal methods because they *have* to be right?
> 
> I believe both ends of the spectrum have their place. "Write only what 
> you need to", "compile and test early and often" are appropriate where 
> you really don't know what you are doing - perhaps the customer doesn't 
> either, or the hardware you are driving is poorly documented.
> 
> But where much of the job is clear, I try to follow the basic approach 
> here.
> 
> - Brian

Is that the grey book? And did it have a section on "stream-oriented programming" where the idea was to view the program as operating on a stream of info, instead of the 'Stream construct/attribute? (I lost the book and then moved so most of my Ada books aren't available to me ATM.)