Arthur Riel 1996

Latest revision as of 03:10, 25 November 2010

Title: Object-Oriented Design Heuristics

Author: Arthur Riel

Year: 1996

Publisher: Addison Wesley

Note: This book is out of print.

Object-oriented Design Heuristics (Arthur Riel)

This book contains a total of 60 guidelines and golden rules about good object oriented design. The rules are categorized into eight sections:

• Classes and Objects: The building blocks of the object-oriented paradigm
• Topologies of action-oriented versus object-oriented applications
• The relationships between classes and objects
• The inheritance relationship
• Multiple inheritance
• The association relationship
• Class-specific data and behavior
• Physical object-oriented design

Each rule is explained in detail in a section of the book and is usually accompanied by a real-world example.

Riel says that this book attempts to turn a list of subconscious rules acquired by developers into a concrete list backed up by real-world examples. He also notes that the heuristics are not hard and fast rules that always need to be followed but rather guidelines. However, some rules are much stronger than other because of the negative effect produced if they are not followed.

See also

• Riel's heuristics