I bought my first copy of this text in 1992 and it has been my constant companion and mentor ever since. From my early Pascal days in college to J2EE development in present times, I have always found the authors' treatment of the discipline of software engineering to be concise, accurate and relevant to the issues at hand. It is one of those books that code shovellers hate...an uncompromising publication that addresses serious process issues such as requirements specification, rigour, interface design and modularity, and robustness. These matters just refuse to go away, and the authors of this book know it. This book is timeless.