Re: An Analysis Pattern for Inventories

[Daniel E Baumann]

On Sat, Mar 02, 2002 at 10:40:19AM -0500, Neil Tiffin wrote:
> At 9:21 PM -0500 3/1/02, Dirk Riehle wrote:
> I think it would be fantastic if you wanted to bring patterns into 
> the GNUe project.  Our delay at this point are the tools to convert 
> the UML into usable form.  Without the tools, we will have to 
> maintain the pattern and the implementation separately.  My 
> experience indicates that one or the other will not be maintained 
> without the tools.  And since without tools we cant use the UML 
> directly I have in the past questioned where we will find the 
> resource to keep the UML accurate.

There are already design patterns utilized in GNUe, just look in
common and you'll see some being used.
 
> Our UML tool is "dia". Our early discussions were centered around 
> taking UML from dia and somehow generating something that GNUe can 
> use internally.  That is still a great project for someone to take on.
> 
> Any takers?

What is really needed is some good CASE tools period. Like a Free
equivalent to Rational Rose or something...there are a few of these
out there, KUML, etc. I am not sure how functional they are
now. However, using the lack of design skills as an excuse not to
document your design in an industry standard and accepted way is
crap. Is it a pain to have to keep docs up to date? Yes. What do I
gain then form doing this extra work? You gain the ability to
communicate your design more readily to would-be dvelopers thus
reducing the learning curve and improving the understanding of the
code. Thus, even without the necessary tools, you should go the extra
mile in using UML to express your design. BTW, I don't expect to
change anyone's mind here. I know how neil, et. al. feels...I just
thought I would state my case and be done with it. (and yes I have
used to crude design tools to creat UML diagrams and then used
dia2code as a base, it is painful but at least you have some overall
simplified picture of how things work which can be easily expressed to
other developers). To wrap it up, the whole point of UML is to be able
to 'communicate' your design to others. This is essential in any
software project.

Dan
-- 
Daniel E Baumann      address@hidden

And if cynics ridicule freedom, ridicule community...if ``hard nosed 
realists'' say that profit is the only ideal...just ignore them, and use 
copyleft all the same.
      -- RMS