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From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject: Re: Do C++ and Java professionals use UML??
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 09:17:09 +0200
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On 23.07.2012 04:52, Arne Vajh=F8j wrote:
> On 7/22/2012 10:26 PM, Gene Wirchenko wrote:

>> document using UML diagrams in some of my uni courses.  I generally
>> did them *after* I wrote the code.
>
> Which is wrong.

Not necessarily.  As long as it's finished before someone else needs to=20
work with the code. :-)

>>                                       They were a time sink and did
>> not add anything to my understanding of the system.
>
> Maybe.
>
> But given that the purpose of the UML is to give other a better
> understanding of the system not so relevant.

+1

>>       I can understand someone not wanting to do things that do not
>> help do the job.  Avoid needless work.
>
> But before concluding about whether it helps or are useless it is
> necessary to understand why and how it is done.

Exactly.  Gene makes it sound as if the whole purpose of putting UML=20
diagrams was the benefit of the *writer*.  I rather think the writer can =

make good use of UML on a whiteboard or piece of paper during design=20
phase.  UML in documents is there to help *readers* better understand a=20
design.

<rant>I have seen quite a lot of documents apparently written with the=20
writer in mind instead of the reader ("brain dump").  That attitude=20
seems to be fairly common.  This is unfortunate since it limits=20
usefulness of documents a lot.

Unfortunately that seems to be true for code as well: there seems to be=20
a tendency to just make things work without consideration of ease of=20
use.  That is mostly determined by API and not internals.  Programmers=20
(on average) seem to be more concerned with internal workings of their=20
classes than with the public visible and usable API.</rant>

Kind regards

	robert

--=20
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/