Showing posts with label Java. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Java. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Taking it one step further [posted Oct. 5th 2005 23:16]

The fact that Java source and comment is used in UML - Java roundtrip tools as more or less interchangeable things is completely in line with the OMG MOF model whre UML and Java are both a M2 level definition. This means, if I'm not mistaken that one could use Java as a basis for code generation instead of UML.

This would be good news since UML is still very bothersome when entering large amounts of information. At least I have found very few UML modelling tools if any at all where one could enter information as effectively as in an IDE. I had good hopes for HUTN (Human Usable UML) but I agree with my neighbour that it probaby is easier to use a syntaxt one is familiar with.

Mapping Java to UML instead of the other way around seems a problem, but one probably doesn't need to be able to express all UML features using Java to end up with a powerfull basis for codegeneration based on MDA principles.

These are exciting times indeed.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Gone but maybe not completely [posted Oct. 5th 2005 22:57]

Don't you just hate it when you think you have a good idea and Google tells you there have been quite a number of people that already had the idea a long time ago...

When I was recently pondering the usefulness of models the thought occured to me that it would be not so difficult to generate a model repository from Java source code in a manner like JavaDoc but more advanced or enhanced. This idea as I suggested and expected was realised by others such as Compuware's JavaDoc enhanced with UML models.

Taking it one step further; all roudtrip UML-Java tools offer even more.

An interesting fact of course and completely in line with current development in MDA/code generation tools, ok, I never said it was a revolutionary idea ;-)

Won't choose [posted July 15th 2005 01:27]

I don't know why but I really don't like conflict. It's not that I can't fend for myself as some of my friends and collegues will confirm. I just don't like the idea of trying to argue a point knowing that winning an argument doesn't mean you're right. And usually taking a side on subjects in IT means that you'll end up in numerous arguments about the merrits of things that are probably only distantly related to the hard of the matter. Particularly when the subject has taken on religious proportions. Take MDA vs DSL or rather Java vs .Net.

I see or think I see a difference between how a number of Java people I know seem to think and work differently than a number of .Net people I know. I feel comfortable or seem to support one of those groups most of the time but the number of times that the other groups seems to have the better ideas is large enough for me not to want to choose sides. It's like I really think slashdot is a cool site but when it turns out sometimes how incredibly dumb and unmannered the average slashdotter seems to be I turn to tweakers with ease. Or even though I admire what Apple does when I see how important the persona of its CEO is and how some of Apples consumers follow him like sheep I cannot decide to buy one of their products.

Maybe I like to think that I don't choose sides because I see the good and bad of both of them. One could say that great men changed the world because they chose something, believed in it and stuck with it. That probably makes me not a great man. That probably is why, when I get home, I change into the non conformist uniform; black. Amongst other reasons because it makes me less visible. If your not a great man you can only aspire to have a great mind. So I avoid light t-shirts to start with.

Holy war [posted July 5th 2005 23:28]

For the first months after MDA came into my life I was completely content to know that I had seen the future and it will be. Recently I realised that one of the reasons that I felt so good about MDA was that it seemed so undisputed. Something you have just gotten to know usually is because you simply haven't gotten to that part of the complete picture. With MDA I had a naive feeling though that this was so new and improved it would be years before anything would touch it.

Well alas, it did not take long before terms like generative programming and DSL started to apear on my horizon. It probably was just pure coincidence that I bumped into MDA first since all of these techniques have been around for quite some years. And they have lived along side each other peacefully for about the same amount of time. However, I'm getting the feeling that just as with Java and .NET as one of the most recent examples MDA and DSL will be getting into a religious battle before long.

This usually soils the joy this kind of great technologies have for me. But maybe it is one of the reasons why both MDA and DSL will evolve faster than expected in the coming years. As the great warriors of holy wars of the past IBM and Microsoft again seem to be taking oposing sides this battle is not going to be over soon.