Hi Phil
Couple of points.
While im sure the Rational Architect is a great product. Im pretty sure
its overkill for most CF-based sites. Cold fusion is for Rapid
Development. If you have something thats got alot of complex models that
requires something like Rational to keep track of it, then a compiled
language like java or .net is probably more the go...
However, that being said, if you got the cash... Im sure you would find
it usefull in some way. And its not to say you cant build big complex
apps in cf either, but are they big enoug that requires an expensive
CASE tool to keep track of them ?
There are heaps of other tools out there that are somewhere in between.
Specifically for eclipse check out:
UMLlet - plugin that lets you draw UML diagrams
http://qse.ifs.tuwien.ac.at/~auer/umlet/
you can save them out to PDF or Jpeg and edit driectly from eclipse.
There are heaps of others. Especially in DB modelling area. check out
eclipse plugin site for more...
http://www.eclipse.org/
The other thing to think about is: what are you going to use it for ?
There are two reasons I think you should use UML.
1. Planning and understanding - before you sit down to code, drawing up
a model in uml will help you understand the model and identify problems
in your design before its too late to fix them. It also forces you to
come up with a plan of what you are going to do before you do it.
2. Communication and documentation - UML is probably not the best way to
communicate to clients on how a project will work. But its really cool
for getting other developers up to speed on how your app works.
It allows to you come up with a plan of the system and break up the work
evenly and each team member knows how their work relates to someone
elses because they have their UML diagrams as a reference.
If its just yourself developing, a pad and pen is just a good a tool as
any. altho it wont do cool things like code-generation, its better than
nothing and very fast to get started with. Drawing up uml diagrams can
be time consuming. I will usually just sketch up my uml on paper then
draw up the important diagrams in UML-let for reference and communiation.
my 2c
Pat
Phil Gray wrote:
Hi All,
I have been doing some research lately to update my skills and awareness
in the whole area of OOP, Methodologies, Frameworks etc.
Comments from Sean such as:
:
For complex web applications - ones with lots of business logic behind
them and complex interaction models - FLiP only gets you part of the
way there. It doesn't really address modeling the business logic when
that is a significant portion of your system. At that point I tend to
drop into UML and run through use cases, component diagrams, high
level logical class diagrams, collaboration and/or sequence diagrams
and finally low level phsyical class diagrams. Then I build my
CFC-based model and drop it into my (Fusebox) application. These days
I'm leaning toward some extra support around the model with Tartan
(and still dropping the result into my Fusebox application).
have really helped to get a handle on how the various Methodologies &
Frameworks work together.
While taking a look into UML I came across a product from IBM called
Rational Software Architect
(http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/architect/swarchitect/index.html)
which in short:
... is an integrated design and development tool that leverages
model-driven development with the UML for creating well-architected
applications and _services_.
With Rational Software Architect you can:
* Unify all aspects of software design and development
* Develop applications more productively than ever.
* Exploit the latest in modeling language technology.
* Review and control the structure of your Java applications.
* Leverage an open and extensible modeling platform.
* Simplify your design and development tool solution.
* Integrate with other facets of the lifecycle.
As this product is based on Eclipse and, thanks to Spike et al,
CFEclipse is now a plug-in for Eclipse I was wondering if there exists,
or if there is any development going on to provide, an Open Source or CF
based tool which supports a Model Driven Architecture (MDA) and utilises
a Model View Controller (MVC) approach (such as Tartan).
I guess what I am looking for is a UML based design/architecting tool
which is suitably priced for a small bespoke development house.
If anyone can point me in the direction of any products, literature or
links that can improve my understanding and productivity in this whole
area I would be very grateful.
Regards,
Phil Gray
At 10:20 PM 9/07/2004 +1000, you wrote:
Hi,
Just to clear up terminology here, all the stuff discussed here so far
comes under the heading (in my book at least) of "framework" - actual
code you fill out the gaps in to create your application.
Methodologies are things like RUP (the Rational Unified Process) -
more a list of design processes to carry out than actual code.
BTW what is the distinction between a framework and an API
(Application programmer interface) library like CFLIB? Typically in a
framework you see an inversion of control (otherwise known as the
Hollywood pricipal - "don't call us, we'll call you") where the
framework code is responsible for coordinating and calling the
developer's code (Mach II an excellent example). With an API the
developer's code is almost always calling the API functions, and the
API doesn't know anything about the caller. So a framework makes a
lot more demands on the shape of the application components you create
- methods, arguments, responsibilities - so that it can integrate them
into the finished application.
Anyway, thought it was worth pointing out. Might be interesting to
discuss what we think some other terms mean - Architecture,
Specification, Requirements, Patterns - not too OT I think.
Cheers,
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