Of all the books that have sought to explain object-oriented, component-based development, this one is unique in its clarity. MIT Professor Barbara Liskov presents a start-to-finish methodology for constructing reliable, understandable, easy-to-maintain Java software. Developers will learn exactly how to decompose a programming problem into its key elements, and then build an optimal program from independent modules -- crucial for success in large-scale, team development projects. Liskov masterfully introduces key concepts of abstraction, specification, and object-oriented design in the context of small programs; then scales the techniques up to enterprise-class development, where they work equally well. The book includes detailed coverage of developing and writing accurate specifications; optimizing tradeoffs between simplicity and performance; and making code easier to evaluate, debug, and test. In the second half of the book, Liskov focuses on modular development of large-scale programs: discovering useful abstractions, program design, analysis, implementation, testing, and the value of design patterns. All examples are based on Java (though the concepts are equally applicable to any object-based language).

Other topics discussed include:

• Encapsulation and the need for an implementation to provide the behavior defined by the specification
• Tradeoffs between simplicity and performance
• Techniques to help readers of code understand and reason about it, focusing on such properties as rep invariants and abstraction functions
• Type hierarchy and its use in defining families of related data abstractions
• Debugging, testing, and requirements analysis
• Program design as a top-down, iterative process, and design patterns

The Java programming language is used for the book's examples. However, the techniques presented are language independent, and an introduction to key Java concepts is included for programmers who may not be familiar with the language.