New topics

New topics that were not covered, or as in the case of CORBA, not covered in sufficient detail, are:

slide: New topics

As noted before, each of these topics would justify a book in itself. In my book, these topics will be introduced and explained in such a way that the student can gain hands-on experience with the associated technology. But, in addition, I will discuss the interrelations between these topics and their associated technologies, both on a technical level and a thematic level. Technically, I will draw from my experience gained in developing a multi-paradigm framework. Thematically, I will repeatedly come back to issues of modeling, component-technology, reusability and distribution. In addition, I will provide some historical context explaining the occurrence of these trends, including the anecdotical material that has become part of OO folklore. (As an example, you may have noticed my use of the phrases 'Gang of Four' and 'three amigos'.)

With respect to the last topic, the Web, I wish to add that this has been my field of interest for the past three years. The Web is a challenge in many respects. From an OO perspective, it is a playground where our notions of OO technology can be put to an ultimate test. It is also a battlefield where standards are of crucial importance, and market-share even more. As a vehicle for the dissemination of information it allows us for example to deploy visualisation technology that requires a multi-paradigm component-based approach. As an application area it provides us with the challenge to think of a development methodology for 'fragmented applications', that is applications constructed from multiple, possibly geographically distributed components, in a variety of languages (including C++, Java, Javascript, Perl) each with their own particular object model. Any of the topics mentioned before is clearly of relevance to the Web. Even UML, as one could say that 'the Web' at this stage is severly 'underdesigned'. There is a need for models that capture the functionality of the Web. UML is potentially a vehicle for creating such models. Fortunately, the relevance of the other topics is more directly evident.