Book Review - Aspect-Oriented Software Development
Category Book Reviews
Over the last year or so, I've heard more and more talk about something called aspect-oriented programming, or AOP for short. Wanting to at least be aware of major trends, I was happy when I received a copy of Aspect-Oriented Software Development by Robert E. Filman, Tzilla Elrad, Siobhan Clarke, and Mehmet Aksit. Unfortunately, I'm not the right audience for this particular book, and I really still don't know much about the subject.
The book is an outgrowth of a special issue of a software engineering publication back in 2001. The subject was AOP, and it drew a heavy response of submitted papers and ideas. Rather than only letting a few of them see the light of day, the authors decided to contact the top researchers in the field and ask them to do a write-up of their special area of AOP interest. As a result, you now have this book which is a compilation of around 30 of these papers and articles. The target of the book is for advanced software engineers who want to catch a glimpse of what is going on in the AOP field. Guess that rules me out...
As with any compilation of articles and papers from different sources, you'll get hits and misses based on communication and writing skills. If you're the type of software engineer that eagerly awaits Dr. Dobb's Journal each month, you'll probably really like this book. It appears that by reading all the way through, you'll get a broad range of information that may make you want to investigate AOP further. If you're like me and you are more focused on working directly with end users to build systems and you have a bent towards practicality over theory, don't start out your AOP experience here. It seems like AOP could be just as hard to wrap your mind around as object-oriented programming was the first time you heard of it. If I'm ever to start to understand this subject, I think I'll need an AOP for Dummies title...
If you're an uber-geek who wants to know more about AOP, or if you're an AOP person already who wants to know more, knock yourself out on this book. If you're wondering what AOP is or what the fuss might be about, I'd recommend that you keep looking. You probably won't get either of those questions answered by this book at your stage of the journey...
Over the last year or so, I've heard more and more talk about something called aspect-oriented programming, or AOP for short. Wanting to at least be aware of major trends, I was happy when I received a copy of Aspect-Oriented Software Development by Robert E. Filman, Tzilla Elrad, Siobhan Clarke, and Mehmet Aksit. Unfortunately, I'm not the right audience for this particular book, and I really still don't know much about the subject.
The book is an outgrowth of a special issue of a software engineering publication back in 2001. The subject was AOP, and it drew a heavy response of submitted papers and ideas. Rather than only letting a few of them see the light of day, the authors decided to contact the top researchers in the field and ask them to do a write-up of their special area of AOP interest. As a result, you now have this book which is a compilation of around 30 of these papers and articles. The target of the book is for advanced software engineers who want to catch a glimpse of what is going on in the AOP field. Guess that rules me out...
As with any compilation of articles and papers from different sources, you'll get hits and misses based on communication and writing skills. If you're the type of software engineer that eagerly awaits Dr. Dobb's Journal each month, you'll probably really like this book. It appears that by reading all the way through, you'll get a broad range of information that may make you want to investigate AOP further. If you're like me and you are more focused on working directly with end users to build systems and you have a bent towards practicality over theory, don't start out your AOP experience here. It seems like AOP could be just as hard to wrap your mind around as object-oriented programming was the first time you heard of it. If I'm ever to start to understand this subject, I think I'll need an AOP for Dummies title...
If you're an uber-geek who wants to know more about AOP, or if you're an AOP person already who wants to know more, knock yourself out on this book. If you're wondering what AOP is or what the fuss might be about, I'd recommend that you keep looking. You probably won't get either of those questions answered by this book at your stage of the journey...
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