I'm looking for some good courses on object oriented programming. I've been programming for about 4 years so far, but I don't feel like I have a SOLID grasp on OO.
How did you learn?
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136answers:
8
+2
A:
Try these: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details_new.php?seriesid=2008-D-26263&semesterid=2008-D
Geoffrey Chetwood
2009-01-26 21:04:39
Thanks for that link, looks good.
Christopher Edwards
2009-01-26 21:08:55
@Christopher: Yeah I feel like that site is a goldmine.
Geoffrey Chetwood
2009-01-26 21:10:25
This is awesome. Thanks!
mr mo
2009-01-26 22:00:28
A:
I would go with ruby, it's more mainstream than smalltalk, and has a richer syntax than java. Perfect for the beginner
klyde
2009-01-26 21:07:29
I'll second that. I've worked my way through a couple of the Head First books, and they're great.
MattK
2009-01-26 21:15:11
+1
A:
Since you ask :) I learned with Object Oriented Software Construction, 2nd Edition by Bertrand Meyer, Prentice Hall, 1997.
Meyer is due to publish in a very short while a book which is focused on learning to program from the start: Touch of Class. This should be a good option for students.
I notice that people's tastes about learning materials vary quite a lot. Some like summaries, tutorials, how-to's... I learn complex subjects by taking my time to follow the complete dissertations.
Daniel Daranas
2009-01-26 21:11:15
The first edition was short and sweet and put Bertrand Meyer on the map. The second edition is a doorstop that shills Eiffel and shows Meyer to be a "contract programming" one trick pony. Not a good learning text, IMO.
duffymo
2009-01-26 21:16:55
I strongly disagree. The OP asked for learning techniques and since I _really_ learnt using that book, then it is a learning technique. It may or may not suit you, but it is one. And an excellent one, IMO.
Daniel Daranas
2009-01-26 21:21:55
A:
It is REALLY difficult to learn this by yourself. The best chance is to learn it alongside someone else at your workspace, who's going to get you through tasks and shows you things on the way.
I can recommend this book. http://squeakbyexample.org/ it's far from perfect, but it's free and comes with a special squeak version that is optimized so you find the code fast. The examples are kind of nice for starters, I think. At least I enjoyed reading it.
nes1983
2009-01-26 21:17:16
A:
The mechanics of OO (i.e. the syntax and semantics, terminology, what it is, what it does) are very easy. They "why" and "where" of it is the hard part. I'd suggest you just learn the mechanics quick and dirty on Wikipedia if you haven't already, and then pick up a book on design patterns. Head First is a good choice here. I don't believe that you can truly understand OOP (or really anything for that matter) unless you know where it's useful and what problems it's meant to solve.
After this, the next step would be to look at APIs you use every day in your favorite language from your new perspective. You should start seeing why using OO techniques in certain situations makes the API much more usable than if everything were just free/static functions and plain old data objects. You might also see areas where OOP is awkward and overused and free/static functions and plain old data objects might be better solutions.
Lastly, it's useful to know how some aspects of OO are implemented at a lower level. Understanding things like virtual function tables and how to do OOP in pure C really adds a level of depth to your understanding of what can and cannot be accomplished with it, and what the tradeoffs are inherent in it.
And obviously, try to integrate what you learn into the code you write.
dsimcha
2009-01-26 21:20:46