On Jan 21, 2006, at 9:44 AM, Kevin Toppenberg wrote:
As a non-computer professional, that article struck a cord. I have had a difficult time understanding or making use of UML. My understanding of UML is a way of diagramming data dependancies and program flow etc. But when I have looked at UML diagrams, I never come away enlightened. Perhaps it wasn't me after all... :-) Kevin
I find UML useful in part because it is a good fit to the way data is represented in Fileman (and VistA). I know that may sound odd, given that neither MUMPS nor Fileman is object oriented, but I think that the way we normally conceive of object orientation (essentially in syntactic terms) misses the point a bit. The surface structure of the language is not nearly so important as the way applications are conceived, designed and, yes, implemented. UML seems to me to be a useful tool for organizing and communicating concepts, but it does have its limitations. One (which is simultaneously a strength and a weakness) is that it maintains a certain distance from what we usually call implementation issues. It is also biased towards object oriented languages and methodologies (and, again, that may be a strength or weakness, depending on how you look at it). My primary interest has been in bridging this gulf by moving away from the artificial distinction between design and implementation. Functional languages seem to do well in this respect, which is undoubtedly one of the major reasons for my interest in the approach.
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