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Preface

by Conrad Weisert

Adapted from Object-Oriented Computation in C++ and Java. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. See below for copyright notice.
 

Object-Oriented Computation in C++ and Java fills a gap in the literature of object-oriented programming. Many C++ or Java textbooks, courses, and class libraries emphasize object-oriented classes for two kinds of data:

  • one-dimensional containers (Java collections), such as vectors, lists, and sets
  • graphical user interface (GUI) components, such as windows, forms, and menus

However, most of the data items our programs process belong to neither of those categories. Container structures and GUI components rarely belong to the application domain. They don't represent actual objects in the real world of a business or science application. True application-domain objects model real-world data items at the core of the very purpose behind developing a computer application.

[Application-domain objects are sometimes misleadingly called "business objects," although they're not limited to business or commercial applications. Scientific and engineering applications need and use application-domain objects just as much, if not more.]

This book is about an important subset of application domain data: numeric data items. Numeric data are central both to most business applications and to every engineering or scientific application.

For more than a dozen years, I've been teaching courses in advanced object-oriented programming. My students have backgrounds in both commercial/business applications and scientific/engineering applications. In searching for a suitable textbook, I found none that adequately treated application-domain objects.

Unfortunately, but hardly surprisingly, the omission of application-domain data from books and courses is mirrored by much application software. I frequently encounter allegedly "object-oriented" application systems in which nearly all numeric quantities are represented as floating-point numbers, as if the programmers have coded in Fortran.

In response, I developed a large collection of course handout material, part of which has evolved into this book.

Object-Oriented Computation in C++ and Java is suited to an advanced programming course for senior undergraduates or masters-level students in engineering, business, or the sciences, as well as to self-study by practicing professionals. Since it covers an area neglected by most OOP textbooks, it also serves well as a supplementary text in a survey course in object-oriented programming for computer science majors.

Conrad Weisert

 

Chicago

 

January 2006

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: This excerpt from Object-Oriented Computation in C++ and Java [ISBN:0-932633-63-3] appears by permission of Dorset House Publishing. Copyright © 2006 by Conrad Weisert . All rights reserved. See http://www.dorsethouse.com/books/ooc.html. The material contained in this file may be shared for noncommercial purposes only, nonexclusively, provided that this Copyright Notice always appears with it. This material may not be combined with advertisements, online or in print, without explicit permission from Dorset House Publishing. For copies of the printed book or for permissions, contact Dorset House Publishing, 1-800-342-6657, 212-620-4053, http://www.dorsethouse.com, info@dorsethouse.com, New: 3143 Broadway, Suite 2B, New York, NY 10027 USA. Additional rights limitations apply, as presented in the Legal Disclaimer posted at http://www.dorsethouse.com/legal.html.

 

 

 
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