Designing Component-Based Applications by Mary Kirtland Search Amazon for other books by or about Mary Kirtland. Rating: Reviewed by: Henri Hein

There is so much hype in the media these days about the Internet and how it is going to revolutionize the industry. In the meantime, componentized software development and distributed computing has slowly transformed contemporary software engineering over the last few years. This book documents current technologies in this important area of programming.

What I really like about this book is that is covers the entire vast topic without overwhelming the reader. The strength is in the organization: One subtopic is covered in detail before moving on. This is an important feature for a book on such a rich set of topics. The important points are revisited at relevant times, so even after the first read, one is left with a lasting impression of the important principles.

The case studies are not only well done, they are incorporated nicely with the theoretical explanations. The author walks you through the background information, then the logical, functional, and physical design -separately - of the case study. Then the entire code for the case study is listed. This is a bit verbose - the reader could have been referred to the companion CD - but the authors notes on the sample code is useful, and thus, having the code listed in the book makes it a bit more convenient to study.

The book covers the Windows DNA suite and other Microsoft technologies. (The core elements of Windows DNA - Distributed[inter]Net Applications - is COM/DCOM and Microsoft Transaction Server.) If you are going to use Unix-based technologies to implement a distributed application, then you are better off looking further. If you are looking for an introduction to distributed computing and componentized development, this book will be helpful. If you know you are going to use Windows DNA to implement even parts of your distributed application, then this book will be invaluable. I was tempted to give this book an even higher rating, but realized that I had a particularly friendly bias towards it due to lack of competition. There are simply no other books that covers both distributed computing and componentized development, not to mention Windows DNA. If you are even just marginally interested in all of those topics, then this book is a must-have.