Learn object-oriented programming in no time with help from this easy-to-understand guide, ideal for novice and expert programmers alike. Discover why objects are so successful as the model for this type of programming and how objects are classified. Distinguish between how people see the world and how computers "see" it. Learn about attributes and methods, inheritance, polymorphism, real-world and case modeling, object-oriented programming languages, and much more. Each chapter ends with a quiz, culminating in a final exam at the end of the book so you can test your knowledge.

Testing software is a very important and challenging activity. This is a book for people who test software during its development. Our focus is on object-oriented and component-based software, but you can apply many of the techniques discussed in this book regardless of the development paradigm. We assume our reader is familiar with testing procedural software–that is, software written in the procedural paradigm using languages such as C, Ada, Fortran, or COBOL. We also assume our reader is familiar and somewhat experienced in developing software using object-oriented and component-based technologies. Our focus is on describing what to test in object-oriented development efforts as well as on describing techniques for how to test object-oriented software, and how testing software built with these newer technologies differs from testing procedural software.

What is software testing? To us, testing is the evaluation of the work products created during a software development effort. This is more general than just checking part or all of a software system to see if it meets its specifications. Testing software is a difficult process, in general, and sufficient resources are seldom available for testing. From our standpoint, testing is done throughout a development effort and is not just an activity tacked on at the end of a development phase to see how well the developers did. We see testing as part of the process that puts quality into a software system. As a result, we address the testing of all development products (models) even before any code is written.

We do not necessarily believe that you will apply everything we describe in this book. There are seldom enough resources available to a development effort to do all the levels and kinds of testing we would like. We hope you will find a number of approaches and techniques that will prove useful to and affordable for your project.

C# 2008 offers powerful new features, and Accelerated C# 2008 is the fastest path to mastering them, and the rest of C#, for both experienced C# programmers moving to C# 2008 and programmers moving to C# from another object-oriented language. Many books introduce C#, but very few also explain how to use it optimally with the .NET common language runtime (CLR). This book teaches both core C# language concepts and how to wisely employ C# idioms and object-oriented design patterns to exploit the power of C# and the CLR.
This book is both a rapid tutorial and a permanent reference. You’ll quickly master C# syntax while learning how the CLR simplifies many programming tasks. You’ll also learn best practices that ensure your code will be efficient, reusable, and robust. Why spend months or years discovering the best ways to design and code C# when this book will show you how to do things the right way, right from the start?

    * Comprehensively and concisely explains both C# 2005 and C# 2008 features
    * Focuses on the language itself and on how to use C# 2008 proficiently for all .NET application development
    * Concentrates on how C# features work and how to best use them for robust, high-performance code.

What you’ll learn
    o How C# works with and exploits the CLR
    o How to use arrays, collections, and iterators
    o How to handle events with delegates and anonymous functions
    o How to design and use generic types and methods
    o How to thread efficiently and robustly
    o How the new C# 2008 anonymous types, lamba expressions, and extension methods work and how to use them

Who is this book for?
If you’re an experienced C# programmer, you need to understand how C# has changed with C# 2008. If you're an experienced object-oriented programmer moving to C#, you want to ramp up quickly in the language while learning the latest features and techniques. In either case, this book is for you. The first three chapters succinctly present C# fundamentals, for those new to or reviewing C#. The rest of the book covers all the major C# features, in great detail, explaining how they work and how best to use them. Whatever your background or need, you'll treasure this book for as long as you code in C# 2008.

Now that ActionScript is reengineered from top to bottom as a true object-oriented programming (OOP) language, reusable design patterns are an ideal way to solve common problems in Flash and Flex applications. If you're an experienced Flash or Flex developer ready to tackle sophisticated programming techniques with ActionScript 3.0, this hands-on introduction to design patterns is the book you need.

ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns takes you step by step through the process, first by explaining how design patterns provide a clear road map for structuring code that actually makes OOP languages easier to learn and use. You then learn about various types of design patterns and construct small abstract examples before trying your hand at building full-fledged working applications outlined in the book. Topics in ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns include:

• Key features of ActionScript 3.0 and why it became an OOP language
• OOP characteristics, such as classes, abstraction, inheritance, and polymorphism
• The benefits of using design patterns
• Creational patterns, including Factory and Singleton patterns
• Structural patterns, including Decorator, Adapter, and Composite patterns
• Behavioral patterns, including Command, Observer, Strategy, and State patterns
• Multiple design patterns, including Model-View-Controller and Symmetric Proxy designs

IT service management (ITSM) is the group of processes and functions that oil the wheels of the IT machine. Without ITSM, every IT project and system would deteriorate over time until failure. ITIL is the recognized best-practice standard for ITSM, and has been around since the late 1980s, with ITIL version 3 published just recently. However, many of todays IT problems have been around for just as long - so in order to manage IT effectively, organizations must go beyond the ITIL framework.

Rob Addy provides IT service managers and professionals with practical guidance on delivering and managing IT services in an effective and efficient manner by extending the ITIL approach to deliver proactive and pragmatic IT service management. His book is a candid look at the relative merits of currently accepted wisdom regarding the provision of IT services, using the principles of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) guidance series. It describes IT service management processes related to service delivery and service support (as well as other non-ITIL areas), their objectives, shortcomings, and how these issues can be addressed in real-life situations. In addition, it delivers a workable definition of what exactly an IT service is and how it can be defined and used in practice. Overall, he gives an unbiased view of the discipline, its objectives, major processes, and their benefits and shortcomings.

Managing and mitigating IT risk is critical to the survival of every business. Success is an optional extra! Proactive IT service management can be thought of as risk management for IT: Can you afford to ignore it?