by Frank Budinsky, David Steinberg, Ed Merks,
Raymond Ellersick, and Timothy J. Grose
Published by Addison-Wesley Review by Garrett Pease The Eclipse Modeling Framework is one of a series of books covering different uses of the Eclipse platform. This book covers the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), which is a Model Driven Architecture tool. I was quite excited about the promise of being able to have three views of a model (Java, XML Schema, and UML) and picked up this book in the hopes it would help me be able to use this tool. After reading through this book, my feelings are mixed. I'd like to explain them, but to begin with, I'll describe a bit of what this book is and what this book is not. Then, I'll give you my recommendation. First off, this book is a reference book. This can be seen in the basic pattern of the book. The first chapters are introductory material, followed by chapters describing how to use different features and API chapters. The middle chapters include introductory material, an example or two and a lot of reference material. This book is not a step-by-step description of how to use the EMF in projects or processes. It does not suggest a methodology for adding the EMF into software development, nor is it really a guide on how to develop software using EMF. It is a reference book. There were a few surprises along the way. One of the surprises was the use of patterns in EMF, and therefore the way they were described in the book. The EMF includes several good implementations of patterns such as notifications and adapters as well as some very good design practices. This makes the book a very reference guide to some well-written software. In conclusion, I'd recommend this book to any one needing a reference to the Eclipse Modeling Framework. Just don't expect a tutorial on how to use EMF, or to find that EMF is the Holy Grail in Model Driven Development. I'd also recommend this book to all developers that would like to see a good example of well-designed and well-written software. It will give you a chance to put the pattern books down and see patterns in action.
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