While most developers today use object-oriented languages, the full power of objects is available only to those with a deep understanding of the object paradigm. How to Use Objects will help you gain that understanding, so you can write code that works exceptionally well in the real world.   Author Holger Gast focuses on the concepts that have repeatedly proven most valuable and shows how to render those concepts in concrete code. Rather than settling for minimal examples, he explores crucial intricacies, clarifies easily misunderstood ideas, and helps you avoid subtle errors that could have disastrous consequences.   Gast addresses the technical aspects of working with languages, libraries, and frameworks, as well as the strategic decisions associated with patterns, contracts, design, and system architecture. He explains the roles of individual objects in a complete application, how they react to events and fulfill service requests, and how to transform excellent designs into excellent code. Using practical examples based on Eclipse, he also shows how tools can help you work more efficiently, save you time, and sometimes even write high-quality code for you.   Gast writes for developers who have at least basic experience: those who’ve finished an introductory programming course, a university computer science curriculum, or a first or second job assignment.   Coverage includes • Understanding what a professionally designed object really looks like • Writing code that reflects your true intentions—and testing to make sure it does • Applying language idioms and connotations to write more readable and maintainable code • Using design-by-contract to write code that consistently does what it’s supposed to do • Coding and architecting effective event-driven software • Separating model and view, and avoiding common mistakes • Mastering strategies and patterns for efficient, flexible design • Ensuring predictable object collaboration via responsibility-driven design   Register your product at informit.com/register for convenient access to downloads, updates, and corrections as they become available.

Table of Contents:
Preface xv Acknowledgments xvii About the Author xix Introduction xxi   Part I: Language Usage 1   Chapter 1: Basic Usage of Objects 3 1.1 The Core: Objects as Small and Active Entities 3 1.2 Developing with Objects 9 1.3 Fields 18 1.4 Methods 30 1.5 Exceptions 58 1.6 Constructors 71 1.7 Packages 77 1.8 Basics of Using Classes and Objects 79   Chapter 2: Fundamental Object Structures 97 2.1 Propagating State Changes: Observer 97 2.2 Compound Objects 108 2.3 Hierarchical Structures 116 2.4 Wrappers: Adapters, Proxies, and Decorators 136   Chapter 3: Abstraction and Hierarchy 143 3.1 Inheritance 143 3.2 Interfaces 167   Part II: Contracts 185   Chapter 4: Contracts for Objects 187 4.1 The Core: Assertions Plus Encapsulation 188 4.2 Elaborating the Concepts by Example 201 4.3 Motivating Contracts with Hindsight 214 4.4 Invariants and Callbacks 215 4.5 Checking Assertions at Runtime 218 4.6 The System Boundary 219 4.7 Arguing About the Correctness of Programs 223   Chapter 5: Testing 243 5.1 The Core: Unit Testing 244 5.2 The Test First Principle 250 5.3 Writing and Running Unit Tests 253 5.4 Applications and Motivations for Testing 266   Chapter 6: Fine Print in Contracts 285 6.1 Design-by-Contract 285 6.2 Contracts and Compound Objects 297 6.3 Exceptions and Contracts 327 6.4 Inheritance and Subtyping 329   Part III: Events 339   Chapter 7: Introduction to the Standard Widget Toolkit 341 7.1 The Core: Widgets, Layouts, and Events 342 7.2 The WindowBuilder: A Graphical Editor for UIs 351 7.3 Developing with Frameworks 355 7.4 SWT and the Native Interface 363 7.5 Compound Widgets 367 7.6 Dialogs 374 7.7 Mediator Pattern 380 7.8 Custom Painting for Widgets 383 7.9 Timers 387 7.10 Background Jobs 393 7.11 Review: Events and Contracts 407   Chapter 8: A Brief Introduction to Threads 413 8.1 The Core: Parallel Code Execution 413 8.2 Correctness in the Presence of Threads 416 8.3 Notifications Between Threads 423 8.4 Asynchronous Messages 431 8.5 Open Calls for Notification 434 8.6 Deadlocks 437   Chapter 9: Structuring Applications with Graphical Interfaces 443 9.1 The Core: Model-View Separation 444 9.2 The Model-View-Controller Pattern 453 9.3 The JFace Layer 472 9.4 The MVC Pattern at the Application Level 494 9.5 Undo/Redo 505 9.6 Wrapping Up 520   Chapter 10: State Machines 523 10.1 The Core: An Object’s State and Reactions 524 10.2 State Machines in Real-World Scenarios 533 10.3 Implementing Finite State Machines 547   Part IV: Responsibility-Driven Design 565   Chapter 11: Responsibility-Driven Design 567 11.1 The Core: Networks of Collaborating Objects 568 11.2 The Single Responsibility Principle 586 11.3 Exploring Objects and Responsibilities 593 11.4 Responsibilities and Hierarchy 616 11.5 Fundamental Goals and Strategies 620   Chapter 12: Design Strategies 637 12.1 Coupling and Cohesion 638 12.2 Designing for Flexibility 652 12.3 Extensibility 678 12.4 Reusability 710   Part V: Appendix 727   Appendix A Working with Eclipse Plugins 729 A.1 OSGi: A Module System for Java 730 A.2 Launching Plugins 744 A.3 Where to Go from Here 749   Bibliography 751 Index 769