Sunday, September 21, 2008

Visual C++ Optimization with Assembly Code


Describing how the Assembly language can be used to develop highly effective C++ applications, this guide covers the development of 32-bit applications for Windows. Areas of focus include optimizing high-level logical structures, creating effective mathematical algorithms, and working with strings and arrays. Code optimization is considered for the Intel platform, taking into account features of the latest models of Intel Pentium processors and how using Assembly code in C++ applications can improve application processing. The use of an assembler to optimize C++ applications is examined in two ways, by developing and compiling Assembly modules that can be linked with the main program written in C++ and using the built-in assembler. Microsoft Visual C++ .Net 2003 is explored as a programming tool, and both the MASM 6.14 and IA-32 assembler compilers, which are used to compile source modules, are considered.

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Visual C++ Windows Shell Programming


The Windows shell provides much of the look and feel of the Windows 98/Windows NT 4 desktop, and it offers many new possibilities for writing better programs. Visual C++ 6 Windows Shell Programming provides an excellent guide to understanding and programming the Windows shell, in a book filled with expert tips and useful code.

The book begins with the basics of the Windows desktop and taskbar and gives an overview of programming techniques. Besides the simpler shell C API, there are COM objects for manipulating the shell. Next the book covers file programming, such as finding and copying files, before moving on to explain how to modify shortcuts. The author presents multiple techniques for opening new programs and documents and shows how to modify the system icon tray.

Later, the book turns to Windows shell COM objects and looks at working with folders and other desktop objects. Material on the Windows Scripting Host (for batch processing) is also very useful. The author creates a sample Windows metafile (.WMF) viewer as a fuller example. The book closes with some notable material on the new Web View feature in Windows 98.

Even if you don't plan on programming extensively with the Windows shell, the material in this book can demystify what the shell is and how it operates. Reading Visual C++ 6 Windows Shell Programming can help you understand how Windows 98 and the Active Desktop really work while teaching you to be a skilled C++ Windows shell developer.

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Thursday, September 4, 2008

Introduction to Algorithms

Introduction to Algorithms


Aimed at any serious programmer or computer science student, the new second edition of Introduction to Algorithms builds on the tradition of the original with a truly magisterial guide to the world of algorithms. Clearly presented, mathematically rigorous, and yet approachable even for the math-averse, this title sets a high standard for a textbook and reference to the best algorithms for solving a wide range of computing problems.

With sample problems and mathematical proofs demonstrating the correctness of each algorithm, this book is ideal as a textbook for classroom study, but its reach doesn't end there. The authors do a fine job of explaining each algorithm. (Reference sections on basic mathematical notation will help readers bridge the gap, but it will help to have some math background to appreciate the full achievement of this handsome hardcover volume.) Every algorithm is presented in pseudo-code, which can be implemented in any computer language, including C/C++ and Java. This ecumenical approach is one of the book's strengths. When it comes to sorting and common data structures, from basic linked lists to trees (including binary trees, red-black, and B-trees), this title really shines, with clear diagrams that show algorithms in operation. Even if you just glance over the mathematical notation here, you can definitely benefit from this text in other ways.

The book moves forward with more advanced algorithms that implement strategies for solving more complicated problems (including dynamic programming techniques, greedy algorithms, and amortized analysis). Algorithms for graphing problems (used in such real-world business problems as optimizing flight schedules or flow through pipelines) come next. In each case, the authors provide the best from current research in each topic, along with sample solutions.

This text closes with a grab bag of useful algorithms including matrix operations and linear programming, evaluating polynomials, and the well-known Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) (useful in signal processing and engineering). Final sections on "NP-complete" problems, like the well-known traveling salesman problem, show off that while not all problems have a demonstrably final and best answer, algorithms that generate acceptable approximate solutions can still be used to generate useful, real-world answers.

Throughout this text, the authors anchor their discussion of algorithms with current examples drawn from molecular biology (like the Human Genome Project), business, and engineering. Each section ends with short discussions of related historical material, often discussing original research in each area of algorithms. On the whole, they argue successfully that algorithms are a "technology" just like hardware and software that can be used to write better software that does more, with better performance. Along with classic books on algorithms (like Donald Knuth's three-volume set, The Art of Computer Programming), this title sets a new standard for compiling the best research in algorithms. For any experienced developer, regardless of their chosen language, this text deserves a close look for extending the range and performance of real-world software. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Overview of algorithms (including algorithms as a technology); designing and analyzing algorithms; asymptotic notation; recurrences and recursion; probabilistic analysis and randomized algorithms; heapsort algorithms; priority queues; quicksort algorithms; linear time sorting (including radix and bucket sort); medians and order statistics (including minimum and maximum); introduction to data structures (stacks, queues, linked lists, and rooted trees); hash tables (including hash functions); binary search trees; red-black trees; augmenting data structures for custom applications; dynamic programming explained (including assembly-line scheduling, matrix-chain multiplication, and optimal binary search trees); greedy algorithms (including Huffman codes and task-scheduling problems); amortized analysis (the accounting and potential methods); advanced data structures (including B-trees, binomial and Fibonacci heaps, representing disjoint sets in data structures); graph algorithms (representing graphs, minimum spanning trees, single-source shortest paths, all-pairs shortest paths, and maximum flow algorithms); sorting networks; matrix operations; linear programming (standard and slack forms); polynomials and the Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT); number theoretic algorithms (including greatest common divisor, modular arithmetic, the Chinese remainder theorem, RSA public-key encryption, primality testing, integer factorization); string matching; computational geometry (including finding the convex hull); NP-completeness (including sample real-world NP-complete problems and their insolvability); approximation algorithms for NP-complete problems (including the traveling salesman problem); reference sections for summations and other mathematical notation, sets, relations, functions, graphs and trees, as well as counting and probability backgrounder (plus geometric and binomial distributions).

Product Description
The first edition won the award for Best 1990 Professional and Scholarly Book in Computer Science and Data Processing by the Association of American Publishers.

There are books on algorithms that are rigorous but incomplete and others that cover masses of material but lack rigor. Introduction to Algorithms combines rigor and comprehensiveness.

The book covers a broad range of algorithms in depth, yet makes their design and analysis accessible to all levels of readers. Each chapter is relatively self-contained and can be used as a unit of study. The algorithms are described in English and in a pseudocode designed to be readable by anyone who has done a little programming. The explanations have been kept elementary without sacrificing depth of coverage or mathematical rigor.

The first edition became the standard reference for professionals and a widely used text in universities worldwide. The second edition features new chapters on the role of algorithms, probabilistic analysis and randomized algorithms, and linear programming, as well as extensive revisions to virtually every section of the book. In a subtle but important change, loop invariants are introduced early and used throughout the text to prove algorithm correctness. Without changing the mathematical and analytic focus, the authors have moved much of the mathematical foundations material from Part I to an appendix and have included additional motivational material at the beginning.

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The Object Primer: Agile Model-Driven Development with UML 2.0

The Object Primer: Agile Model-Driven Development with UML 2.0


Review
"THe Object Primer is the best book I've read that covers the basic fundamentals of object-oriented software engineering and process. It is easy to understand and...a must read." Mike Stefano, New York Life

Product Description
Scott Ambler, award-winning author of Building Object Applications that Work, Process Patterns, and More Process Patterns, has revised his acclaimed first book, The Object Primer. Long prized by both students and professionals as the best introduction to object-oriented technology, this book is now completely up-to-date, with all modeling notation rewritten in the just-released UML 2.0. All chapters have been revised to take advantage of Agile Modeling (AM), which is presented in the new chapter 2 along with other important new modeling techniques. Review questions at the end of each chapter allow readers to test their newly acquired knowledge. In addition, Ambler takes time to reflect on the lessons learned over the past few years by discussing the proven benefits and drawbacks of the technology. This is the perfect book for any software development professional or student seeking an introduction to the concepts and terminology of object technology. Previous Edition Pb (2001): 0-521-78519-7 Scott W. Ambler is a senior object consultant with Ronin International, Inc. and a popular speaker at conferences worldwide. He has worked with OO technology since 1990 as a business architect, system analyst, system designer, mentor, Smalltalk/C++/Java developer, and OO software process manager. He is a member of the IEEE Computer Society, the ACM, and Mensa.

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Object-Oriented Design Heuristics


Book Info
Offers insight into object-oriented design improvement. The more than sixty guidelines presented are language-independent and allow you to rate the integrity of a software design. DLC: Object-oriented programming (Computer science)

From the Inside Flap
In the process of teaching object-oriented analysis, design, and implementation to several thousand students, it became clear to me that the industry was in serious need of guidelines to help developers make proper decisions. Since 1987 I have scoured the literature in search of productivity and complexity metrics that can be applied at different levels of development to improve an object-oriented application. I added my own "homemade" guidelines to those found in the literature and came up with approximately 60 guidelines, several of which are tongue-in-cheek yet no less important than any others. I briefly considered calling them the "Sixty Golden Rules of OOA/D," but I recalled Dykstra's legendary "Goto Considered Harmful" paper, which branded users of goto statements heretics who should be burned at the stake in the company courtyard. That paper was important in that it provided an industry rule that stopped the users of goto statements who were destroying, wittingly or unwittingly, the maintainability of their systems. Unfortunately, the side effect of such a rule was the breeding of a group of pathological authors who, for the past 25 years, have published articles stating that the judicious use of a goto statement in some picky little piece of an application is more readable than a corresponding piece of structured code. Of course, these papers were followed up by a half-dozen rebuttal papers, which were themselves rebutted ad nauseam.

In order to prevent the same pathology from occurring, I refer to these 60 guidelines as "heuristics," or rules of thumb. They are not hard and fast rules that must be followed under penalty of heresy. Instead, they should be thought of as a series of warning bells that will ring when violated. The warning should be examined, and if warranted, a change should be enacted to remove the violation of the heuristic. It is perfectly valid to state that the heuristic does not apply in a given example for one reason or another. In fact, in many cases, two heuristics will be at odds with one another in a particular area of an object-oriented design. The developer is required to decide which heuristic plays the more important role.

This book does not invent yet another object-oriented analysis or design methodology, though the idea of creating "Riel's OOA/D Methodology" was tempting. The industry already has enough methodologies offering similar or overlapping advice, using a completely different vocabulary for common concepts. The typical problem of the object-oriented developer - which has not been seriously addressed - occurs once a design has been completed, regardless of the methodology used. The developer's main question is, "Now that I have my design, is it good, bad, or somewhere in between?" In asking an object-oriented guru, the developer is often told that a design is good when "it feels right." While this is of little use to the developer, there is a kernel of truth to such an answer. The guru runs through a subconscious list of heuristics, built up through his or her design experience, over the design. If the heuristics pass, then the design feels right, and if they do not pass, then the design does not feel right.

This book attempts to capture that subconscious list of heuristics in a concrete list backed up by real-world examples. The reader will become immediately aware that some heuristics are much stronger than others. The strength of a heuristic comes from the ramifications of violating it. The reader does not get a prioritized ordering of the heuristics. It is my feeling that in many cases the sense of priority is defined by a combination of the application domain and the user's needs and cannot be quantified here. For example, a common area of design where two heuristics might request opposite directions are those that trade complexity with flexibility. Ask yourself which attribute a software designer desires most, increased flexibility or decreased complexity, and you begin to see the problem of prioritizing heuristics.

The design heuristics are defined on a backdrop of real-world examples focusing on the area of design to which each heuristic belongs. The foundation of real-world examples provides an ideal vehicle for explaining the concepts of object-oriented technology to the novice. The end result is that this book is appropriate to the newcomer who would like a fast track to understanding the concepts of object-oriented programming without having to muddle through the proliferation of buzzwords that permeates the field. Yet, at the same time, it appeals to the experienced object-oriented developer who is looking for some good analysis and design heuristics to help in his or her development efforts.

The first chapter looks at the motivation for object-oriented programming, starting with several issues which Frederick Brooks argued in his "No Silver Bullet" paper published in 1987 (see reference 1). My perspective on object-oriented programming is that it is a natural progression or evolution from action-oriented development. As software has become more complex, we are required to remove ourselves one more level away from the machine in order to maintain the same grasp we have on the software development process. Just as structured methodologies removed one level from bottom-up programming, object-oriented technology removes one level from structured methodologies. It is not that bottom-up programming or structured methodologies are wrong and object-oriented programming is right. Bottom-up programming is perfectly valid when there exists only 4K of memory to develop, just as structured methodologies are perfectly valid when only 256K of memory exists. With the advent of increasingly cheaper and more powerful hardware, the complexity of software has skyrocketed. Developers of the early 1980s did not have to consider the complexity of graphical user interfaces and multithreaded applications; simpler menu-driven, single-threaded systems were the norm. In the very near future, no one will buy a software product unless it incorporates multimedia with moving video and voice recognition. The more complex systems require a greater level of abstraction, which the object-oriented paradigm provides. This is no revolution in software development; it is simply an evolution.

Chapter 2 discusses the concepts of class and object, the basic building blocks of object-oriented technology. They are viewed as the encapsulation of data and its related behavior in a bidirectional relationship. The notion of sending messages, defining methods, and inventing protocols are explored through real-world examples. This is the first chapter to list heuristics. Given the small subset of the object paradigm with which to work, these heuristics are fairly simple but no less useful than the more complex heuristics of subsequent chapters.

The third chapter examines the difference between an action-oriented topology and an object-oriented topology. The different topologies of these methodologies contain the kernel of truth behind object-oriented development. Action-oriented development focuses largely on a centralized control mechanism controlling a functionally decomposed set of tasks, while object-oriented development focuses on a decentralized collection of cooperating entities. I am convinced that the notion of a paradigm shift is the change in thinking required to move from a centralized to a decentralized control model. The learning curve of object-oriented development is an equally large unlearning curve for those of us reared in the world of action-oriented development. The real world in which we live is more attuned to the object model than to a centralized control mechanism. The lack of a paradigm shift manifests itself in systems that consist of a central godlike object that sits in the middle of a collection of trivial classes. These systems are built by developers stuck in the mindset of an action-oriented topology. This chapter proposes numerous heuristics for developing optimal application topologies.

Chapters 4 through 7 examine each of the five main object-oriented relationships: uses (Chapter 4); containment (Chapter 4); single inheritance (Chapter 5); multiple inheritance (Chapter 6); and association (Chapter 7) through a series of real-world examples. Most of the heuristics of interest to the object-oriented designer can be found in these chapters. The chapters on inheritance include many examples of the common misuses of the inheritance relationship. This information is vital in reducing the proliferation of classes problem, such as designing too many classes for a given application. The class proliferation problem is a major cause of failure in object-oriented development.

Chapter 8 examines the role of class-specific data and behavior, as opposed to object-specific data and behavior. The invoice class is used as an example of an abstraction that requires class-specific data and behavior. Both the SmallTalk metaclass and the C++ keyword mechanisms are illustrated. In addition, the notion of C++ metaclasses (i.e., templates) is compared and contrasted to the SmallTalk notion of metac

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Object-Oriented Programming (From Problem Solving to JAVA) (Programming Series) (Paperback)


Product Description
Object-Oriented Programming: From Problem Solving to Java provides a thorough, easy-to-follow reference to master object-oriented programming principles. Throughout the text, problem solving and programming techniques are presented in modeling diagrams, pseudo-code, and flowcharts. Users then learn how to put theory into practice using actual Java code. Unlike "cookbook" guides where users blindly follow the instructions this book encourages users to explore their problem solving creativity, and then test their ideas in a real-world environment. By first learning the concepts involved in object-oriented programming, and then learning how to put them into use, readers not only learn Java, but they also learn how to become more efficient programmers.

Book Info
Text teaches the fundamental principles of object-oriented programming using Java. Includes a CD-ROM with all the source code for the projects in the book. For beginners. Softcover. DLC: Object-oriented programming (Computer science).

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Pair Programming Illuminated


Book Info
Written as instruction for team members and leaders new to pair programming and as an improvement guide for experienced pair programmers Explains both the principles underlying this method and its best practices. Softcover.

From the Back Cover

Pair programming is a simple, straightforward concept. Two programmers work side-by-side at one computer, continuously collaborating on the same design, algorithm, code, and test. It produces a higher quality of code in about half the time than that produced by the summation of their solitary efforts. However, nothing is simple where people and personalities are involved--especially people who are accustomed to working alone. The leap to pair programming for a variety of software development projects is one that yields many benefits. However, it is also one that requires careful thought and planning.

Written as instruction for team members and leaders new to pair programming and as an improvement guide for experienced pair programmers, Pair Programming Illuminated explains both the principles underlying this method and its best practices. The authors, drawing on their own extensive experience, explain what works and what does not, what should be emphasized and what should be avoided. Two case studies further illuminate pair programming in practice: one in the context of extreme programming (XP), with which it often is associated, and one linked to a more disciplined software engineering process.

Key topics include:
# Principles for selecting partners
# Practical advice, such as furniture set-up, pair rotation, and weeding out bad pairs
# Seven habits of effective pair programmers

Special appendices include:
# A pair programming tutorial
# An economic analysis of pair programming
# An introduction to test-driven development

With this book in hand, you will quickly discover how pair programming fits the needs of your own organization or project. You then will see exactly how to get started with this method, and how to do it right.

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