On Dec 9, 2003, at 7:08 PM, R. Joseph Newton wrote: [..]
UML? Isn't that the stuff the once-long-ago-knew-how-to-code[..]
professional sycophants use to make pretty pictures for execs,
so that the execs can go to bed in the warm contented illusion
that they actually understand something about the systems they are paying for?
Well it sorta depends upon the Politics of the Dance.
{ Warning: Possible Religious War Material }
As an Annotational System for "Higher Level" documentation UML can provide a common set of glyphs useful both in the BDUF - Big Design Up Front - "Design, then Code" approach, or as a "Follow On Documentation" process from say the eXtreme strategy as a prelude to POD.
As a 'rapid prototyping tool' I prefer Perl, since we can get from glyph to 'well does that really make sense' reasonably quickly. Then as we start into the process of doing the metrics of analysis can worry about which parts really need to be tightened up to meet 'performance requirements' once the 'bottle neck' is identified.
If one does not design, nor document one's code, Then there is no need for UML, or a UML like common glyph set to provide an annotational system.
caveat: you may need to review what you are doing if you do not design and/or document your code. This is a Leading Cause of Bad Kharma! Do NOT DO THIS!
{ Having convinced an associate who has written man pages in Raw roff since the Epoch to float over to POD, it is uh, scary, since his "c-code" docs now comes in three flavors, POD, the manified Pod, and the html'ized Pod... So getting to POD has value outside of merely Perl.
But I can also read his whiteBoard Glyphs and go Oh, one of those types of OLTP's... But this also means I have to UML-ize it so that the Glyph Set is more 'portable' to humans who have color perception, and do not dream in ASCII art... }
Like all annotational systems between the designer and the implemented machine language sequence of bits that the CPU may BARF on, it is subject to various abuses. But the defect is NOT in UML, but in the persons hurling BuzzPhraseDuJure in lieu of actual technical stuff.
IF you need to KarlRove the material, you should be doing this in PowerPoint. It should NOT contain any actual Technical Information that can be used by the SEC and/or Justice Department Investigators or Prosecutors in subsequent litigation or indictments for violations of SEC Regulations and/or Other possible Felony Indictments. { consult with your solicitor prior to recieving the warrents... }
IF the PowerPoint Wars leak into Engineering, to bloat out the UML wars, it is time to float your resume. They will not be worrying about delivering technical solutions, and are in the Power Dive of Spin Doctoring.
ciao drieux
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