The Tao of Objects

Rating:
Summary: Best Used as a Bad Example
Review: I keep this one in my library as an example of how bad programming books can be. I felt like I got taken halfway through it. When I read it, I was learning object oriented programming with Delphi and C++. Although "examples" were given in both languages, many of them were so full of errors that they would not compile. Amazon's rating system requires that I award at least one star, but this book deserves none. NOT RECOMMENDED.

Rating:
Summary: Mostly misses the point
Review: This is a terrible introduction to Object-Oriented programming. As mentioned, many of the examples won't even compile. But worse is that the examples show bad design decisions, confuse inheritance and composition, and aren't developed enough.
The author spends so much time on polymorphism (deservedly) but so little on how to use it well. If you used this book to improve your C structures and modules, then you also miss the point of OO (and polymorphism).

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to OOPL for anyone.
Review: This is an excellent book for anyone just starting out in programming, but as programmer who started out in the late 70's, I found it particularly useful to make the mind-shift towards object orientation. I regularly lend the book to colleagues needing to travel the same path, but intend to reclaim it soon so my 11yo can read it. It's written in a laid-back style reminiscent of "Zen and art of motor-cycle maintenance" and so is quite approachable. There are plenty of worked examples, with each presented in both C++ and Borland Pascal (the predecessor to Delphi). I thoroughly recommend this book.