About the Book
Framework Design Guidelines, Second Edition, teaches developers the best practices for designing reusable libraries for the Microsoft .NET Framework. Expanded and updated for .NET 3.5, this new edition focuses on the design issues that directly affect the programmability of a class library, specifically its publicly accessible APIs.
This book can improve the work of any .NET developer producing code that other developers will use. It includes copious annotations to the guidelines by thirty-five prominent architects and practitioners of the .NET Framework, providing a lively discussion of the reasons for the guidelines as well as examples of when to break those guidelines.
Microsoft architects Krzysztof Cwalina and Brad Abrams teach framework design from the top down. From their significant combined experience and deep insight, you will learn
The general philosophy and fundamental principles of framework design
Naming guidelines for the various parts of a framework
Guidelines for the design and extending of types and members of types
Issues affecting—and guidelines for ensuring—extensibility
How (and how not) to design exceptions
Guidelines for—and examples of—common framework design patterns
Guidelines in this book are presented in four major forms: Do, Consider, Avoid, and Do not. These directives help focus attention on practices that should always be used, those that should generally be used, those that should rarely be used, and those that should never be used. Every guideline includes a discussion of its applicability, and most include a code example to help illuminate the dialogue.
Framework Design Guidelines, Second Edition, is the only definitive source of best practices for managed code API development, direct from the architects themselves.
Downloadable files can be found at the book’s web page. Included in these files are the Designing .NET Class Libraries video series and instructional presentations by the authors on design guidelines for developing classes and components that extend the .NET Framework. A sample API specification (and other useful resources and tools are (also included.
Table of Contents:
Figures xvii
Tables xix
Foreword xxi
Foreword to the First Edition xxiii
Preface xxv
Acknowledgments xxxi
About the Authors xxxiii
About the Annotators xxxv
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
1.1: Qualities of a Well-Designed Framework 3
Chapter 2: Framework Design Fundamentals 9
2.1: Progressive Frameworks 11
2.2: Fundamental Principles of Framework Design 14
Chapter 3: Naming Guidelines 37
3.1: Capitalization Conventions 38
3.2: General Naming Conventions 46
3.3: Names of Assemblies and DLLs 54
3.4: Names of Namespaces 56
3.5: Names of Classes, Structs, and Interfaces 60
3.6: Names of Type Members 68
3.7: Naming Parameters 73
3.8: Naming Resources 74
Chapter 4: Type Design Guidelines 77
4.1: Types and Namespaces 79
4.2: Choosing Between Class and Struct 84
4.3: Choosing Between Class and Interface 88
4.4: Abstract Class Design 95
4.5: Static Class Design 97
4.6: Interface Design 98
4.7: Struct Design 101
4.8: Enum Design 103
4.9: Nested Types 115
4.10: Types and Assembly Metadata 118
Chapter 5: Member Design 121
5.1: General Member Design Guidelines 121
5.2: Property Design 138
5.3: Constructor Design 144
5.4: Event Design 153
5.5: Field Design 159
5.6: Extension Methods 162
5.7: Operator Overloads 168
5.8: Parameter Design 175
Chapter 6: Designing for Extensibility 193
6.1: Extensibility Mechanisms 193
6.2: Base Classes 206
6.3: Sealing 207
Chapter 7: Exceptions 211
7.1: Exception Throwing 216
7.2: Choosing the Right Type of Exception to Throw 221
7.3: Using Standard Exception Types 234
7.4: Designing Custom Exceptions 239
7.5: Exceptions and Performance 240
Chapter 8: Usage Guidelines 245
8.1: Arrays 245
8.2: Attributes 247
8.3: Collections 250
8.4: DateTime and DateTimeOffset 261
8.5: ICloneable 263
8.6: IComparable and IEquatable 264
8.7: IDisposable 266
8.8: Nullable 266
8.9: Object 268
8.10: Serialization 274
8.11: Uri 283
8.12: System.Xml Usage 284
8.13: Equality Operators 286
Chapter 9: Common Design Patterns 289
9.1: Aggregate Components 289
9.2: The Async Patterns 298
9.3: Dependency Properties 312
9.4: Dispose Pattern 319
9.5: Factories 332
9.6: LINQ Support 337
9.7: Optional Feature Pattern 344
9.8: Simulating Covariance 348
9.9: Template Method 354
9.10: Timeouts 356
9.11: XAML Readable Types 358
9.12: And in the End... 361
Appendix A: C# Coding Style Conventions 363
A.1: General Style Conventions 364
A.2: Naming Conventions 367
A.3: Comments 368
A.4: File Organization 369
Appendix B: Using FxCop to Enforce the Framework Design Guidelines 371
B.1: What Is FxCop? 371
B.2: The Evolution of FxCop 372
B.3: How Does It Work? 373
B.4: FxCop Guideline Coverage 374
Appendix C: Sample API Specification 405
Glossary 413
Suggested Reading List 419
Index 423
About the Author :
Brad Abrams was a founding member of the Common Language Runtime and .NET Framework teams at Microsoft Corporation. He has been designing parts of the .NET Framework since 1998 and is currently Group Program Manager of the .NET Framework team. Brad started his framework design career building the Base Class Library (BCL) that ships as a core part of the .NET Framework. Brad was also the lead editor on the Common Language Specification (CLS), the .NET Framework Design Guidelines, and the libraries in the ECMA\ISO CLI Standard. Brad has authored and coauthored multiple publications, including Programming in the .NET Environment and .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, Volumes 1 and 2. Brad graduated from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in computer science. You can find his most recent musings on his blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/BradA.
Krzysztof Cwalina is a program manager on the .NET Framework team at Microsoft. He was a founding member of the .NET Framework team and throughout his career has designed many .NET Framework APIs and framework development tools, such as FxCop. He is currently leading a companywide effort to develop, promote, and apply framework design and architectural guidelines to the .NET Framework. He is also leading the team responsible for delivering core .NET Framework APIs. Krzysztof graduated with a B.S. and an M.S. in computer science from the University of Iowa. You can find his blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/kcwalina.
Review :
“Framework Design Guidelines is one of those rare books that can be read at different reading levels and can be useful to different kinds of developers. Regardless of whether you want to design an effective object model, improve your understanding of the .NET Framework, borrow from the experience of software gurus, stay clear of the most common programming mistakes, or just get an idea of the huge effort that led to the .NET initiative, this book is a must-read.”
—Francesco Balena, The VB Migration Partner Team (www.vbmigration.com), Code Architect, Author, and Microsoft Regional Director, Italy
“Frameworks are valuable but notoriously difficult to construct: your every decision must be geared toward making them easy to be used correctly and difficult to be used incorrectly. This book takes you through a progression of recommendations that will eliminate many of those downstream ‘I wish I’d known that earlier’ moments. I wish I’d read it earlier.”
—Paul Besly, Principal Technologist, QA
“Not since Brooks’ The Mythical Man Month has the major software maker of its time produced a book so full of relevant advice for the modern software developer. This book has a permanent place on my bookshelf and I consult it frequently.”
—George Byrkit, Senior Software Engineer, Genomic Solutions
“Updated for the new language features of the .NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5, this book continues to be the definitive resource for .NET developers and architects who are designing class library frameworks. Some of the existing guidelines have been expanded with new annotations and more detail, and new guidance covering such features as extension methods and nullable types has also been included. The guidance will help any developer write clearer and more understandable code, while the annotations provide invaluable insight into some of the design decisions that made the .NET Framework what it is today.”
—Scott Dorman, Microsoft MVP and President, Tampa Bay International Association of Software Architects
“Filled with information useful to developers and architects of all levels, this book provides practical guidelines and expert background information to get behind the rules. Framework Design Guidelines takes the already published guidelines to a higher level, and it is needed to write applications that integrate well in the .NET area.”
—Cristof Falk, Software Engineer
“This book is an absolute must read for all .NET developers. It gives clear ‘do’ and ‘don’t’ guidance on how to design class libraries for .NET. It also offers insight into the design and creation of .NET that really helps developers understand the reasons why things are the way they are. This information will aid developers designing their own class libraries and will also allow them to take advantage of the .NET class library more effectively.”
—Jeffrey Richter, Author/Trainer/Consultant, Wintellect
“The second edition of Framework Design Guidelines gives you new, important insight into designing your own class libraries: Abrams and Cwalina frankly discuss the challenges of adding new features to shipping versions of their products with minimal impact on existing code. You’ll find great examples of how to create version N+1 of your software by learning how the .NET class library team
created versions 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5 of the .NET library. They were able to add generics, WCF, WPF, WF, and LINQ with minimal impact on the existing APIs, even providing capabilities for customers wanting to use only some of the new features, while still maintaining compatibility with the original library.”
—Bill Wagner, Founder and Consultant, SRT Solutions, author of Effective C# and More Effective C#
“This book is a must read for all architects and software developers thinking about frameworks. The book offers insight into some driving factors behind the design of the .NET Framework. It should be considered mandatory reading for anybody tasked with creating application frameworks.”
—Peter Winkler, Sr. Software Engineer, Balance Technology Inc.
“An instant classic.”
—From the Foreword by Miguel de Icaza
