Audience: Computer scientists and IT oriented engineers interested in building object oriented database applications. The book contains plenty of well documented SQL code. SQL knowledge is required. Unfortunately there is no CD or diskette enclosed.

Contents & Review: This excellent book covers the object oriented view of databases and database applications, including data to information, how to improve software quality, the new generation software, database issues, client/ server systems, distributed software, an architecture for object presistence, obtaining scaleability, interfacing with the relational world, abstracting the database, encapsulating data access, implementing business models (developing a simple invoicing system), storing multimedia objects, the inheritance of persistent objects, associations, transaction management and concurrency, user interface design for databases, a case study on an electronic telephone directory and a good discussion on "toward open applications".

The conclusion of the book is that the database does not play the all-important role in software design, rather it is a part of a three part design approach, covering the user interface, the database and most importantly the object oriented business model.

The Appendix contains a DBtools-Based implementation of Scoop, including Pset, DataSet, IM_Resolver, Resolving Impedance Mismatch and Building the Select Statement.