Software Design Articles and Essays

Finding commonality among classes makes for effective object-oriented programming. Often, programmers express that commonality using an inheritance hierarchy, since that is one of the first concepts taught in object-oriented programming. We're going to go to the other extreme in this chapter to explore the difference between using inheritance and using interfaces. An excerpt from Interface Oriented Design.

In this article the author explores the past and future of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools, from the "traditional" structured tools of years long past to today's "third generation" Object Oriented modeling and CASE tools--and beyond into possible futures. Ironically, the author finds that the future lies in the past.

In this article I will begin with a discussion of home-grown vs. off-the-shelf persistence solutions, including areas to consider when deciding between the two, and advice for choosing the best off-the-shelf solution to meet your needs. I will also share suggestions and advice from my own experiences with O/R mapping and persistence APIs, with a focus on "best practices."

Here we continue the developer.* Systems and Software series, in which we explore the topics of general systems thinking and cybernetics to discover how "systems" concepts can help software professionals in the day-to-day work of creating, deploying, and improving software.

What is DSM? How is it different from UML and MDA? Can DSM languages produce significant programming productivity gains? Can software development be truly model-driven?

"All this time, when we've talked about design, we've been playing around on the periphery of the subject." Excerpted from the classic essay collection Software Conflict 2.0.

These essays by Jack W. Reeves offer three perspectives on a single theme, namely that programming is fundamentally a design activity and that the only final and true representation of "the design" is the source code itself.

The recent Java 5 (a.k.a. Java 1.5) generics implementation opens both new problems and new opportunities in the implementation of the "Gang of Four" Factory patterns.

An LOC estimation does not give you the total picture; the technique I developed to fill this gap is called Pattern Analogies.

Sometimes it is necessary that tasks that take longer than a few seconds provide feedback to the user and the system. The Task Pattern presented here provides a proven solution for creating and monitoring long running tasks.

How important are software design skills to a programmer? The traditional view is that programmers merely implement the designs of other people.

Judging someone else’s code according to our own relative correctness measurements is one thing, but what happens when we need to modify that code?

Quality code does not happen by accident. It really takes true desire in the heart of the developer.