Java modeling in color

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 27, 2000 @11:15AM from the color-commentary-on-color-modeling dept.

Jason Bennett took a look at the triply-authored Java Modeling in Color with UML . What he came away with . well, that’s for you to find out, but computer book writers everywhere ought to be grateful that Slashdot book reviewers are not granted the power of the emperor’s thumb.

Java Modeling in Color with UML
author	Peter Coad, Eric Lefebvre, and Jeff De Luca
pages	218
publisher	Prentice Hall
rating	Far belo
reviewer	Jason Bennett
ISBN	0-13-011510-X
summary	Peter Coad’s attempt to integrate another dimension to modeling

Background

Back in my wild college days (ok, so maybe they weren’t that wild . ), my introduction to object-think and object-speak came through two main conduits: Smalltalk, and Peter Coad. His Object-Oriented Programming helped teach me how to think natively in objects, and gave me my share of vending-machine problems. When I learned that he had come out with a new book, I knew I had to get it and see how his views had developed in the era of Java and UML. This was not what I had in mind.

The Scenario

This book is mainly divided into three parts. Part one is composed of chapter 1, where the authors describe the concept of modeling with color. It’s an excellent idea, really, color coding class design to distinguish the parts the objects play. Color coding has the advantage of adding another dimension of information to a diagram without clogging the diagram with more words. The chapter also includes a discussion of the «domain-neutral component,» the fitting together of archetypes into standard patterns. This is the basis for part two, comprised of chapters 2-5. Part two is basically a series of object models strung together with a bit of text to describe each of them. Various views of the model, including UML activity diagrams, are shown. Finally, part three is composed of chapter 6, where the authors describe the concept of Feature-Driven Development, that is developing software in narrow slivers, thus maximizing deliverables and customer satisfaction.

What’s Bad?

A dangerous question to ask about this book. I approached this book looking for something that would teach me about patterns, what they do, some examples, and ways to use them in my work. What I got was a pattern dictionary with no instruction in their use. Since I get paid to design and write Java, and since I have some formal training in OO, I like to think that I have some sort of clue about this stuff. Unfortunately, this book still didn’t make any sense to me, and still didn’t seem useful at all. Why do I want 20 pages of manufacturing models? How did they come about? Why would I want to do it that way? How else could I do it? What the heck is going on with this model? It’s like trying to expand your vocabulary by reading the dictionary, with no example sentences to guide you. The other parts are mildly interesting, but not special in and of themselves. The color idea is nice, if you design like Coad. If you don’t, I have to wonder how usful they would be. Feature-driven development has been expressed in other ways before, but this book does not address a major problem with the concept: how can you develop narrowly when you need a broad backing for the application? In other words, it’s all well and good to get one feature out at a time, but if you have to write half the middle-tier and all the back-end for that one feature, have you really bought yourself anything? I don’t mean to settle the debate here, only point out that an entire book could be written on that concept (and in the case of Extreme Programming , has been), and one chapter does not do it justice. In many ways, it seems tacked on.

What’s Good?

Well, as I said, the first and last chapters have some promise. If you read the comments on Fatbrain and Amazon, the opinions seem to be strongly divided. People either love or hate this book. If you need these models, and can intuit a lot from the diagrams, this book could be very useful to you. If you’re anything less than an expert, though, I doubt what you will be able to get much from this book.

So What’s In It For Me?

I’m currently ordering Applying UML and Patterns , as that has been highly recommended to me as an intro patterns book. I’ll let you know how that turns out. I do believe in the pattern concept, as that is exactly how the other engineering disciplines work. I truly hope we can make it work for software engineering.

Preface
About the Authors

Archetypes, Color, and the Domain-Neutral Component
Make of Buy
Sell
Relate
Coordinate and Support
Feature-Driven Development

Appendix A: Archetypes in Color
Appendix B: Modeling Tips
Appendix C: Notation
Index

Источник

Java modeling in color