Hi Dave, What are you planning to teach on Head First Objects?

[Ramasubbhu Allur Kuppusamy]

Hi Dave, What are you planning to teach on Head First Objects? I have all the Head First Series Books with me. I am looking forward to newer books in the series. I just can't wait!!!
By the way, I have entered my choice for the Cover Model.

[Dave Wood]

Hi Ram,

Thanks for your interest. Here's the current chapter list (subject to change...but not much) to give you a rough idea:

1. Intro
2. "An OO Story" (a refactoring example)
3. Use Cases
4. Analysis
5. Encapsulation, Packaging and Access Control
6. Abstractions, Inheritance and Polymorphism
7. Types (static, dynamic, generics, etc.)
8. Associations
9. Objects (object diagrams, the heap, garbage collection, etc.)
10. Design Principles (OCP, Law of Demeter, etc.)
11. Object-to-Relational Mapping
Appendix. Misc Topics

A lot of core UML concepts are also included throughout the book (it's not a complete UML guide, but it definitely hits the high points).

Also, most examples are in Java, but there are also quite a few examples in other languages (Ruby, C#, C++, Python). It's not, strictly speaking, a Java book (but it's Java-friendly).

Hope that helps.

-Dave

[Ilja Preuss]

Sounds cool!

[Ramasubbhu Allur Kuppusamy]

Hi Dave,
The Chapter List comes as a pleasant surprise. I am planning to take the IBM Test # 486 (Object Oriented Analysis & Design with UML) sometime this year. I believe your HFO would supplement the Recommended resources I have already. However, I am not planning to buy HFO only for this reason. I mean, if it does, it will be an icing on the cake.
By the way, the test is on UML 1.4. The resources I have so far deal with UML 2.0. Would it make a huge difference? Please throw some light on this.
I welcome other expert opinions too.
My best wishes to you Dave and we folks in India look forward to your brainchild.

[Dave Wood]

There are a few UML2-specific things in the book, but most of the UML in HFO is consistent with UML1. I've tried to point out when something is new to UML2. I should tell you that HFO is *not* a UML book...it covers (in detail) a lot of important UML syntax, but it leaves out a fair amount as well. In particular, I would not say that HFO is a great resource for dynamic modeling in UML.

Thanks,
Dave

[Bob Beerbower]

Dave, will any UML modeling tools be needed to follow along with the book. If so are there any, preferably free ware ones that you suggest.

[Dave Wood]

Originally posted by Bob Beerbower:
Dave, will any UML modeling tools be needed to follow along with the book. If so are there any, preferably free ware ones that you suggest.

Bob,

You definitely don't need to have a UML tool to follow along -- you can do anything you need to do with a pencil...but it certainly wouldn't hurt either. You might want to check out Jude.

Thanks for you interest in (and pre-order of!) the book.

-dave

[Bob Beerbower]

Dave,
Any update on an expected ship date. My Amazon pre order still says March 1st, which has obviously come and gone.

[Dave Wood]

Wow, it said MARCH first? That's really odd...I don't think O'Reilly ever published a date like that. The date I'm hoping for is the date currently shown on Amazon -- May 1. It should be close to that if things go according to plan from here on out.

[Christophe Verré]

Amazon.com must have been updated.
As Dave says, it's May 1, 2006

[Bob Beerbower]

I had pre ordered TIJ4 at the same time, which did ship on the 1st, so perhaps the date carried over. Funny, that my order page is still showing March 1st delivery for HFO. Early May sounds good.

[Anjali S Sharma]

Originally posted by Dave Wood:
Wow, it said MARCH first? That's really odd...I don't think O'Reilly ever published a date like that. The date I'm hoping for is the date currently shown on Amazon -- May 1. It should be close to that if things go according to plan from here on out.

Is Head First Object delayed? Amazon now shows September 1 instead of May 1...

[Pauline McNamara]

Anjali, check out Dave's latest post: it leads to some more info about HF Object's release date.