Component Reuse: Crossing the Chasm

by Paul Harmon

Recently, a well-known methodologist asked me what books or courses I would recommend to those just getting started in component-based development. This shocked me a bit. I've been writing about component development for so long that I tend to think everyone must already know about components. I must realize, of course, that most of my readers are managers or developers working on cutting-edge projects. Similarly, I realize that huge numbers of developers in any large company are still engaged in maintaining COBOL or C, while others are doing rather routine report-generating applications in Visual Basic or various scripting languages.