In this book, a leading software architect presents the rock-solid foundations of object design and architecture -- and the art of applying them. The Art of Objects will help analysts, architects, and developers fully leverage today's most important object tools and technologies, including Java, UML, XML, middleware, patterns, and much more. Its real-world case studies, examples, and exercises are designed in a holistic, forward-looking manner, ensuring that whatever technologies go out of fashion, readers will have the object skills they need to succeed. Yun-Tung Lau presents the language-independent fundamentals of object design; then provides a detailed overview of the Unified Modeling Language. Building from the basics, he presents advanced approaches such as object relationship loops, and relationship fission for analyzing complex object structures. The Art of Objects contains extensive coverage of persistent objects, including mapping to relational tables, event processing objects, distributed objects, CORBA, and the Interface Definition Language. It also introduces the latest XML object models.