[thelist] {server side] programming practices resources

[Ken Schaefer]

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From: "Paul Bennett" <paul at teltest.com>
Subject: [thelist] {server side] programming practices resources


: I am managing to move from procedural code to function based coding and
: looking more at object-oriented coding for web based applications.
: Does anyone know of any good resources (be they sites or books or
: whatever) that help gumbies like me learn effective practices with
: respect to OOP and function based programming? (Particular
: technologies are not important, just practices such as planning,
: code layout, modularisation etc.)
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Probably depends at what your level is at now...

Additionally, any book is going to need to provide examples, and if you're
familiar with a particular language(s), then things become clearer if you
can follow the examples.

Secondly, you've got quite a few concepts in your email above: "planning"
for example doesn't really have anything to do with OOP per se. There are
many design methodologies and technologies - some more suited to OOP than
others. You could pick up a raft of books on design methodologies alone! For
large applications, get yourself a book on UML (Unified Modelling Language).
For smaller projects, any good Systems Analysis book is OK, and will usually
cover flow charts, UML, Use Cases, Data-Flow Diagrams and so forth.

You'll also want a book on database design/development that covers
Entity-Relationship and Enhanced Entity-Relationship Modelling,
Normalisation etc, if you're into database backed applications.

"Code Layout" isn't something I've read a lot about, and depends (I suspect)
very much on the technology you're using, and the IDE. For example,
developing an ASP.Net page using a Code-Behind file is *very* different to
developing an Classic ASP page. The former is event-driven, and gives you an
OO environment, whereas the latter is largely procedural, loosely typed and
has few intrinsic objects.

I'm not sure what you mean by "function" based programming. Do you mean
using functions/subroutines (or "methods" to use a more generic term)? or
programming in a way that each part of the application performs a discrete
function? Can you elaborate?

Some books that I've found useful, given that I'm not sure exactly what
you're looking for:

// Books that I've found to be useful for general programming practise
"Code Complete" - Steve McConnell
"Refactoring" - Martin Fowler

// Developing reusable classes
"Design Patterns" - the Gang of Four book (but I don't understand this
enough)
Check around in amazon.com there are other books that try to explain better
how to use the GoF patterns

// For ASP/ASP.Net
"VB.Net Class Design Handbook" (Wrox Press) - if you're going .Net
development. Covers how methods, classes, events etc are handled in ASP.Net
"Designing Active Server Pages" Scott Mitchell (if you're doing Classic ASP)

// For database design/development
Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation, and
Management (3rd Edition) by Connelly and Begg. Not an introductory book (it
was a text book in one of my final-year classes on database systems). But
I've found it to be well worth the money as my knowledge of databases has
increased.

Cheers
Ken