Product DescriptionThe architects of the Software Factories method provide a detailed look at this faster, less expensive, and more reliable approach to application development. Software Factories significantly increase the level of automation in application development at medium to large companies, applying the time tested pattern of using visual languages to enable rapid assembly and configuration of framework based components.Unlike other approaches to Model Driven Development (MDD), such as Model Driven Architecture (MDA) from the Object Management Group (OMG), Software Factories do not use the Unified Modeling Language (UML), a general purpose modeling language designed for models used as documentation. They go beyond models as documentation, using models based on highly tuned Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) and the Extensible Markup Language (XML) as source artifacts, to capture life cycle metadata, and to support high fidelity model transformation, code generation and other forms of automation.
Building business applications is currently an extremely labor-intensive process that relies on a limited pool of highly talented developers. As global demand for software exceeds the capacity of this labor pool, current software development methods will be replaced by automated methods, meaning cheaper, faster, and more reliable application development. Wiley Computer Publishing has teamed with industry experts Jack Greenfield and Keith Short, both architects in the Enterprise Frameworks and Tools group at Microsoft, and leading authorities on Model Driven Development (MDD), to help technical professionals understand how business application development is changing. With two chapters on Domain Specific Language (DSL) development by contributors Steve Cook and Stuart Kent, they take an in-depth look at challenges facing developers using current methods and practices, and critical innovations that can help with these challenges, such as Pattern Automation, Generative Programming, Software Product Lines, Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP), Component Based Development (CBD), Service Oriented Architectures (SOA), Service Orchestration and Web Service Integration. They then propose the Software Factories method, which has the potential to significantly change software development practice, by reducing the cost of building reusable assets, such as patterns, languages, frameworks and tools, for specific problem domains, and then applying them to accelerate the assembly of applications in those domains.
After introducing Software Factories, the book describes these key enabling technologies in depth, and shows how they can be integrated and applied to support a form of Rapid Application Development (RAD). It then provides a detailed example of a working Software Factory and answers Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Readers will gain a better understanding of these technologies, and will learn how to apply them to implement Software Factories within their own organizations.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Interesting topic, the writing a bit confusing
I have been following Domain Specific Languages (DSL) and model-driven development for some time. Software Factories (SF) seem to be one of the first development process framework that leverages DSLs. What I have expected from this book is to describe the relationship between the two.
The book does a very good job at describing the intentions behind DSLs (good job Steve and Stuart). The SF portion is less digestible. Often wordy, with long tedious lists of barely related facts. I feel ... Read More
Rating: - Not bad, not good
This book is interesting but it is poorly organized. It seems that ideas are mixed, and chapters repeat the same ideas again and again, sometimes calling them in different way.
Rating: - Exceptional reasoning on software construction
Wow! I bought this book a long time ago and it lived on my "bibliophile" stack of bought but unread gems. It's a stunning book if you seek to understand the decomposition of complexity in modern software applications and the complex deployment architectures they work in. My only concern is the book is not an engineering book - there are no mathematical models of scale and performance for distributed decompositions. It has a excellent description of aspect oriented programming which I learned from. ... Read More
Rating: - Factories are the future
This book provided insightful coverage of what I think is a fascinating topic. THe author organizes the material in a logical manner making it easy to transition from one topic to another. I would have liked more illustrations, but what was supplied was enough for me to understand everything. Very recommended!
Rating: - Mindnumbing and Boring Beyond Belief
With four authors the writing is a bit varied toward the middle to the end, but overall this book is just plain boring; I find this to be a fascinating subject and even I was bored. Go figure.
My main gripes about this book (boredom aside) are:
1) The coverage of DSL's (domain specific language): the authors repeatedly state that the cost of dsl developement can be prohibitive. I dispute this arugument as languages such as ocaml make the implementation of arbitrary languages ... Read More
- Interesting topic, the writing a bit confusing
- Not bad, not good
- Exceptional reasoning on software construction
